The Implementation Team

The Implementation Team was brought together in the fall of 2023 to analyze child care and early education best practices, strategies, and trends; communicate and engage with the public about the Fund; participate in listening sessions and meet with other stakeholders, such as providers, parents, businesses, and community partners; detail how best to use these funds immediately as well as how to build a sustainable system for our families; bring forward an ordinance to the Anchorage Assembly that lays out the Board’s responsibilities, composition, and operations; and support the ACCEE Fund Board as it is seated. As of the Anchorage Assembly’s September 10, 2024 meeting, seven of nine Board members had been appointed. The Implementation Team provided its final report and proposed budget to the Mayor and Assembly on September 2, 2024, and it is now up to the Mayor and Assembly, with possible feedback from the Board, to finalize the 2025 budget and implement systems for distributing funding. The ACCEE Fund Board will propose all future budgets to the Mayor and Assembly.

Members of the Implementation Team brought a range of experiences, perspectives, and backgrounds, all in support of effectively advancing and supporting a more sustainable child care and early education system in Anchorage.

While the Implementation Team played a critical role in shaping the Anchorage Child Care and Early Education Fund, engagement with providers, parents, businesses, and our broader community was just as important. The Implementation Team and its contractor engaged extensively with stakeholders, including through individual meetings, presentations, listening sessions, and participation in larger conversations with others also working to solve our community’s child care and early education challenges. This broad engagement enabled the IT - and now the Municipality of Anchorage via the Implementation Team’s proposed budget - to put together a program that meets immediate child care and early education needs in our community while also building a more sustainable system for years to come. A list of past and upcoming meetings and events, including notes from past events, can be found on our Get Involved page.

  • Katrina Ahlfield

    Executive Director of Kids’ Corps, Inc., a Head Start federal program that promotes school readiness for low-income children ages birth-five

  • Anna Brawley

    Anchorage Assembly member

  • Branwen Collier

    Director & Owner, Early Learning for Everyone

  • Eric Croft

    Proposition 14 campaign team member and former Representative in the State of Alaska House of Representatives. Croft is also a former Anchorage Assembly and Anchorage School Board member.

  • Jade Hayden

    Founder, Hmoob Cultural Center of Alaska

  • Carl Jacobs

    Vice President, Anchorage School Board

  • Nora Matell

    Parent

  • Kathleen McArdle

    President/CEO of the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce

  • Melinda Myers

    Chief Operating Officer at thread, Alaska’s child care resource and referral organization

  • Kameron Perez-Verdia

    Anchorage Assembly member

  • Ethan Pettigrew

    Executive Director, Cook Inlet Native Head Start

  • Kimberly Rash

    Anchorage Health Department Acting Director

  • Dawn Skeete

    Child Care Licensing Program Supervisor at the Anchorage Health Department

  • Jessica Simonsen

    Parent

  • Trevor Storrs

    Proposition 14 campaign team member and President & CEO of Alaska Children’s Trust

  • Heather Weafer

    JBER representative, U.S. Air Force,
    Flight Chief, Child and Youth Programs