Candace Williams (2009-11) joins the Erikson Institute as Director of Family and Community Partnerships. “As director of this new initiative, I will be working in several Chicago communities helping build the systems needed to improve the lives of young children facing developmental (i.e., chronic poverty) and educational (i.e., poor schools) challenges.”
Candace spoke about collaboration and systems in a recent interview published in Erikson’s quarterly Erikson on Children: “We need to increase resources, and we also need to get creative about collaboration. If you do what I do, and there are 1,500 families to serve, there’s no reason that both of us should be serving the same 500 families when collectively we could serve all of them with the same amount of funding.”
Christine Tran (2009-11) completes her MA in Sociology from Columbia University this May. Starting this fall she will be a PhD student in the College of Education's Organizations and Education Policy program at the University of Washington in Seattle. She has been awarded a CREST (Collaborative Researchers for Educational Sciences Training) predoctoral fellowship, funded by the U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences, to conduct P-20 research.
Christine is co-author of “Deconstructing Perceptions: Integrating Cultural Competency in Higher Education Teaching Practices," presented at the Yale Bouchet Conference on Diversity in Graduate Education at Yale University in March.
“I just wanted to update you on these upcoming life events and express the deep appreciation I have for the Illinois Early Childhood Fellowship and the Latino Policy Forum,” Christine says. “I am where I am today because of the transformative experiences I had as a Fellow.”
Arianna Cisneros (2009-11) continues to work at Arabella and is adjusting to life as a working mother, having recently welcomed her new son, Sebastián. Says Arianna, “ I'm trying to spend as much time as I possibly can enjoying this phase of his life, watching him develop, grow, explore and play.”
Cemere James (2009-11) is working at the Illinois Department of Human Service, where she has been developing and implementing strategies to improve customer service and increase access to child care, Medicaid and food assistance. Her work is part of a federal project in which Illinois and other states are testing ways to improve delivery of such supports to low-income working families. Reports Cemere, “I have worked with Child Care Resources and Referral agencies including Illinois Action for Children and DuPage YWCA to improve the relationship between IDHS community offices and CCRRs across the state.”
