The Institute’s Executive Director, Sherry Cleary, has been named the new University Dean of Early Childhood Initiatives, effective immediately. Sherry will add this new role to her existing portfolio and continue to focus on early childhood issues within CUNY, throughout the state, and nationally.
Sherry has served for 13 years in the Office of the Senior University Dean as the Executive Director of the New York Early Childhood Professional Development Institute, a unique public/private partnership that harnesses the combined efforts of city and state agencies, private funders, and CUNY to establish a workforce system that insures training, funding, standards, and credentials for individuals who work with young children throughout New York. The Institute also leads the NYC Early Childhood Research Network, which has launched eleven studies focusing on the workforce serving children from birth through 5 years. Sherry co-chairs the Governor’s Early Childhood Advisory Council for the state of New York. She also is a past President of the New York State Association, and has served on the Board of the National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators. In addition, Sherry was named to the six-member Early Childhood Working Group, which built the model to be used for New York City’s Universal Pre-kindergarten implementation.
More recently, Sherry has played a major role in the design and implementation of the Family Empowerment Community College Pilot at CUNY, which provides students with vital on-campus child care and career counseling. She has also taken on the new CUNY Early Childhood Workforce scholarship. Given her expanding work in this area and CUNY’s particular interest in building more robust supports for student parents, Executive Vice Chancellor Jose Luis Cruz has asked Sherry to integrate the excellent work and the dedicated personnel of CUNY’s campus-based childcare programs into her portfolio.
Congratulations Sherry on this well-deserved recognition!