Who We Are

Our Staff

Stephanie Curenton-Jolly, PhD

Stephanie Curenton-Jolly, PhD, is the founder of Early Learning Access where she presently serves as the CEO.

Stephanie’s goal is to use applied developmental psychology research strives to inform policy making and improve practice in education and health for young children. Her passion lies in promoting the health and education of young children by using research to inform culturally responsive teaching practices and socially equitable public policies. Stephanie specializes in researching the healthy growth and development of Black children as well as other children who are socially marginalized due to their language, identity, or geographic location, and she has expertise in early childhood education and policy and children’s language and literacy development.

Stephanie is a developmental and community psychologist who received her bachelor’s degree from Wittenberg University and her master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Virginia. She has been a professor at Florida State University, Rutgers University, and is now a professor at Boston University. In addition, to her positions in academia, is a research fellow at Urban Institute, and she occasionally provides research consultation to Abt Associates, MDRC, and Mathematica Policy Research. She has been awarded two policy fellowships, one from the Society for Research on Child Development (SRCD)/American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the other from the National Black Child Development Institute.

Her work appears in numerous scholarly publications, and its practical applications are featured in three books: Don’t Look Away (Gryphon, 2020), Conversation Compass: A Teacher’s Guide to High-Quality Language Learning for Young Children (Redleaf, 2016), The CRAF-E4 Family Engagement Model (Elseiver, 2014), and Cultural Competence in Early Childhood Education (Bridgepointe Education, 2013). She has served as associate editor for Early Childhood Research Quarterly and Early Education and Development, and she has served on the editorial board for Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology and Child Development.

Curenton serves on the Massachusetts Board of Early Education and Care, In the past, she has also served on education nonprofit boards for National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and local Head Start programs. In collaboration with her colleague, Iheoma Iruka, Curenton co-founded the Researchers Investigating Sociocultural Equity and Race (RISER) Network, a mentoring network for scholars interested in conducting research with Black children.

Keami Harris

Keami Harris is the Project Management Consultant. Keami is a passionate and resourceful leader, educator, and advocate for developing and executing innovative strategies that support improved academic and social outcomes for underserved children and families. She also serves as Chief Equity and Strategy Officer with the Early Learning Funders Collaborative (ECFC), she helms strategic initiatives on a variety of early childhood and related initiatives. Keami moves equity efforts to the next level by working with the philanthropic community to move their equity work within their institutions and as a collective, bringing more philanthropic resources to BIPOC-led organizations.

She has worked in public education and national non-profit organizations focused on early childhood education for over 20 years. Keami led professional learning at Child Care Aware of America (CCAoA), developing innovative solutions and practices designed to strengthen the childcare system and infrastructure across the nation.

Keami has held leadership positions at the National Association for Family, School, and Community Engagement (NAFSCE) and the National Black Child Development Institute in Washington, DC whose mission is to improve and advance the lives of Black children and their families through education and advocacy. Keami holds a bachelor’s degree in communications from Salisbury University and a master’s degree in education from Bowie State University.

Tiffanie Small

Tiffanie is our dedicated Executive Assistant, bringing valuable experience from her extensive background in the healthcare and service industries. With years of expertise in managing high-level administrative tasks, she serves as the primary contact for all ACSES registrations, ensuring smooth coordination and support for both current and prospective participants.

Tiffanie also manages our general email communications and oversees our website, making sure that information is always accessible and up-to-date. Her attention to detail and commitment to service make her an essential part of our team.

Board of Directors

Yvette Sanchez Fuentes

Yvette Sanchez Fuentes leads Start Early’s national strategy to advance both Start Early and Educare Learning Network policy agendas and strengthen partnerships with peer organizations and federal agency staff. She also oversees the National Center for Parent, Family, and Community Engagement, one of four National Centers that develop evidence-based best practices for Early Head Start and Head Start programs across the country.

A nationally recognized early childhood expert, Yvette has been influential in driving effective policy and practice change in areas of Head Start, child care and the workforce through intentional engagement of stakeholders. Yvette has dedicated her professional career to understanding how policy, research and implementation impact lifelong outcomes for young children and their families struggling with adversities (low-income households, migrant and seasonal farm workers, immigrant communities, American Indian and Alaska Native populations, and dual language learners).

Prior to joining Start Early, she served as Director of the Office of Head Start, a Presidential Political Appointee, where she shepherded sweeping reforms including the release of the Head Start Roadmap and the creation and rollout of the Parent, Family and Community Engagement Framework. She also steered the launch of a pilot program that allowed spending flexibility for creating additional early learning programs, which led to the implementation of Early Head Start-Child Care Partnerships.

Yvette began her career at Community Action Partnership of San Luis Obispo, Inc. She received her B.A. in liberal arts from California State Polytechnic University.

Gabe Hakim

Gabe Hakim is Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Promise Venture Studio–a national nonprofit with a mission to support innovators and accelerate innovations for equity in early childhood development and education. He has spent his career serving and leading in mission-driven organizations focused on advocacy and support for families with children with disabilities, interfaith leadership and organizing for community action, workforce development and up-skilling to improve family stability, and–for the last decade–equity-driven innovation in early childhood development and education.

Prior to launching Promise in 2018, he was the US COO of Generation: You Employed, a global workforce development nonprofit started by the McKinsey Social Initiative, where he supported programmatic growth and execution across 13 states. He’s also led the strategy and scaling efforts for Interfaith America, a national nonprofit that promotes interfaith cooperation and leadership on 1,000 US college campuses. As a former management consultant, he has experience working across the public, private, and social sectors to develop high-impact strategies for innovative solutions. Gabe has an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government with a certificate in Management, Leadership, and Decision Sciences and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business with a certificate in Public Management and Social Innovation.

Dr. Marquita Davis

Dr. Davis brings more than 20 years of experience in early childhood education, non-profit leadership, government and philanthropy, including nearly six years as deputy director of Early Learning at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where she led the foundation’s multi-state early learning strategy which aims to ensure all young children have access to high-quality, effective and affordable preschool.

Prior to her work at the foundation, Davis was the executive director of a large non-profit agency. At this same agency, she previously served as deputy director of child development services overseeing several early childhood federal programs, including Head Start, Early Head and Child Care Partnerships. Appointed by two governors, Davis also served as the director of finance for the State of Alabama, commissioner for the Alabama Department of Children’s Affairs, and Pre-K director for the state of Alabama.

Rosemarie Allen

Dr. Rosemarie Allen has served as an educational leader for over 40 years. Her life’s work is centered on ensuring ALL children have access to high quality early childhood programs that are developmentally appropriate and culturally sustaining. She is currently a Professor in the School of Education at Metropolitan State University of Denver. Her classes are focused on ensuring teachers are aware of how issues of equity, power and justice impact teaching practices. Rosemarie has served in directorship roles with the Colorado Department of Human Services as the Director of the Division of Early Learning and in Youth Corrections. In Early Learning, she oversaw the State’s child care licensing program, the federal child care assistance program, the redesign of the State’s quality rating and improvement system, the implementation of the State’s professional development plan, and assisted in the creation of Colorado’s early learning guidelines.