Kelly Matthews

Co-Director, Wisconsin Early Education Shared Services Network (WEESSN)

Owner, A Place for You Early Childhood Consulting

Adjunct Instructor, Family Child Care Credential

I've been in the early care and education field since I was 18 years old, starting as a family child care substitute. My current roles are a dream job for me--getting to use my deep family child care knowledge and the passion I have for the dignity of family child care every day is incredible. I can go from talking with national policy advisors one moment and be on the phone with a provider the next--and both are so deeply important.

My work with WEESSN is incredible - I wake up every day thinking about how I can make life easier for our child care programs. We support providers with technology, streamlined information and resources, shared staff, facilitated purchasing, and executive coaching--which helps program leaders get that To Do List DONE. And most importantly, we responsively support providers in their day to day struggles and successes, so they know they are not alone doing this incredibly important work. I am most proud that we were able to take this project and move it from serving two programs in January of 2019 to now over 130 programs with additional expansion conversations happening--that's amazing to think about! 

Every single program deserves to have this level of support and have a team of experts at their service, that they can count on, so their child care program can thrive. And at the same time, I am passionately committed to helping create a sustainable funding system that actually works for programs and families. I would love to see providers compensated fairly for the incredibly complex and important work they do. I want every early educator respected as an educator, period.