Caitlin is the Director of the Zero to Five Program Office – a new initiative funded through the Headwaters Foundation in partnership with the ChildWise Institute, the University of Montana’s Center for Children, Families and Workforce Development, and Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies – the Montana Coalition.
Caitlin began her career in early care and education working in a Seattle Head Start classroom 15 years ago. Her experiences working with young children and families in low income communities, both locally and internationally, led her to pursue her Master’s in Social Work with an emphasis on policy and advocacy at the University of Washington. She completed her Maternal and Child Health Leadership fellowship at Seattle Children’s Hospital prior to moving to Montana in 2010. She has enjoyed her time working on state and local initiatives involving Early Head Start/Head Start, child care, workforce/professional development, home visiting, and early childhood infrastructure development in communities across the state. She worked in Washington State as the Head Start Collaboration Office Director at the Department of Early Learning and moved back to Montana to continue supporting early childhood initiatives as the director of Montana State University’s Early Childhood Project. Her passion for social justice and in the intersection of education and public health have led her on a career path for the pursuit of health and wellbeing of all children.
She was born in the small town of Wolf Point, Montana and lived in Missoula and St. Ignatius as a young child before her family moved to Olympia, Washington. She loved her summers with family in Helena and Circle, and always looked forward to building a life in Montana. She is thrilled at the opportunity to be a part of the Zero to Five Program Office and looks forward to the great collaborative work to come through this unique and important initiative.
To learn more about Zero to Five, please visit https://www.zerotofive.org/.
