Board of Directors
Our esteemed board
Nathaniel Foote
Director & Board Chair
Nathaniel Foote is Chairman of TruePoint, a consulting firm, and a founding Board member of the Center for Higher Ambition Leadership, a 501(c)(3) non-profit. He also serves as a Senior Fellow of the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. From 2014-2018, he served as Chairman of Activate Healthcare, a private equity-backed healthcare venture that nearly tripled in size during that period, while achieving industry leadership on patient outcomes, cost control and customer satisfaction. A former partner at Mckinsey & Co., Mr. Foote brings 35 years of experience helping organizations improve performance and accelerate growth through sharpened strategic direction, greater organizational alignment, and increased leadership team effectiveness.
Nathaniel Foote is Chairman of TruePoint, a consulting firm, and a founding Board member of the Center for Higher Ambition Leadership, a 501(c)(3) non-profit. He also serves as a Senior Fellow of the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. From 2014-2018, he served as Chairman of Activate Healthcare, a private equity-backed healthcare venture that nearly tripled in size during that period, while achieving industry leadership on patient outcomes, cost control and customer satisfaction. A former partner at Mckinsey & Co., Mr. Foote brings 35 years of experience helping organizations improve performance and accelerate growth through sharpened strategic direction, greater organizational alignment, and increased leadership team effectiveness.
Ellen Galinsky
Director
Ellen Galinsky is the chief science officer and executive director of Mind in the Making at the Bezos Family Foundation. She also serves as President of Families and Work Institute. She’s conducted research on child-care, parent-professional relationship, parental development, work-family issues and youth voice, including studies on how young people view their working parents, violence and their work in the future. She has found that what adults think that young people think and what they think are often quite different.
Ellen is the author of the best-selling Mind in the Making, more than 100 books/reports and 300 articles. Other highlights include serving as a parent expert in the Mister Rogers Talks to Parents TV series, as child care expert of Dr. T. Berry Brazelton’s TV series What Every Baby Knows and being the elected President of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). In 2018. the Work and Family Researchers Network established the ongoing Ellen Galinsky Generative Researcher Award.
Ellen is currently at work on a book about adolescence called The Breakthrough Years. She began this journey by interviewing young people, asking them what they wanted to know about their own development, then interviewed and filmed over 40 researchers and neuroscientists on adolescent development in the U.S. and abroad. She and colleagues have also conducted two studies of a nationally representative group of adolescents, 9 though 18 and their parents, including one that is in the field right now about how they are doing during the pandemic and this period of racial justice unrest. They have also conducted a study of life skills in six states and Ellen spent the summer interviewing some of the adolescents and parents who participated in the survey. It has been an exciting journey!
Ellen Galinsky is the chief science officer and executive director of Mind in the Making at the Bezos Family Foundation. She also serves as President of Families and Work Institute. She’s conducted research on child-care, parent-professional relationship, parental development, work-family issues and youth voice, including studies on how young people view their working parents, violence and their work in the future. She has found that what adults think that young people think and what they think are often quite different.
Ellen is the author of the best-selling Mind in the Making, more than 100 books/reports and 300 articles. Other highlights include serving as a parent expert in the Mister Rogers Talks to Parents TV series, as child care expert of Dr. T. Berry Brazelton’s TV series What Every Baby Knows and being the elected President of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). In 2018. the Work and Family Researchers Network established the ongoing Ellen Galinsky Generative Researcher Award.
Ellen is currently at work on a book about adolescence called The Breakthrough Years. She began this journey by interviewing young people, asking them what they wanted to know about their own development, then interviewed and filmed over 40 researchers and neuroscientists on adolescent development in the U.S. and abroad. She and colleagues have also conducted two studies of a nationally representative group of adolescents, 9 though 18 and their parents, including one that is in the field right now about how they are doing during the pandemic and this period of racial justice unrest. They have also conducted a study of life skills in six states and Ellen spent the summer interviewing some of the adolescents and parents who participated in the survey. It has been an exciting journey!
Elsa Holguin
Director
Elsa Holguin is President and CEO of Denver Preschool Program (DPP), which champions, funds and increases access to quality preschool across the City and County of Denver. Previously, as senior program officer at Rose Community Foundation, she directed the Foundation’s Child and Family Development area, which supports the development and improvement of early childhood development and programs that help strengthen families. Ms. Holguín was appointed by Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper for two terms as a commissioner and chair for the Early Childhood Leadership Commission. She currently serves on the board of Borealis Philanthropy and the Colorado Preschool Policy Leadership Committee. Former board member of Early Milestones Colorado, the Denver Opportunity Youth Initiative, and the national Early Childhood Funders Collaborative.
Elsa Holguin is President and CEO of Denver Preschool Program (DPP), which champions, funds and increases access to quality preschool across the City and County of Denver. Previously, as senior program officer at Rose Community Foundation, she directed the Foundation’s Child and Family Development area, which supports the development and improvement of early childhood development and programs that help strengthen families. Ms. Holguín was appointed by Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper for two terms as a commissioner and chair for the Early Childhood Leadership Commission. She currently serves on the board of Borealis Philanthropy and the Colorado Preschool Policy Leadership Committee. Former board member of Early Milestones Colorado, the Denver Opportunity Youth Initiative, and the national Early Childhood Funders Collaborative.
Jacqueline Jones
Director
Jacqueline Jones has been a teacher, researcher, and policymaker. Currently, she is the President and CEO of the Foundation for Child Development. During the first term of the Obama administration, Dr. Jones served as Senior Advisor on Early Learning to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and as the country’s first Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and Early Learning in the US Department of Education. Prior to federal service she was the Assistant Commissioner for the Division of Early Childhood Education in the New Jersey State Department of Education, with responsibility for New Jersey’s Abbott Preschool Program. For over 15 years Dr. Jones served as a Senior Research Scientist at the Educational Testing Service in Princeton where she and her colleagues explored appropriate assessment of young children’s science and literacy development. Dr. Jones has been a Visiting Associate Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and early in her career was a faculty member at Lehman College.
She is a member of the Advisory Board of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education (DBASSE) and served as a member of the National Academy of Science’s consensus committees that produced Early Childhood Assessment: Why, What and How and Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8: A Unifying Foundation. Dr. Jones attended Hunter College and earned both a masters and PhD from Northwestern University.
Jacqueline Jones has been a teacher, researcher, and policymaker. Currently, she is the President and CEO of the Foundation for Child Development. During the first term of the Obama administration, Dr. Jones served as Senior Advisor on Early Learning to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and as the country’s first Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and Early Learning in the US Department of Education. Prior to federal service she was the Assistant Commissioner for the Division of Early Childhood Education in the New Jersey State Department of Education, with responsibility for New Jersey’s Abbott Preschool Program. For over 15 years Dr. Jones served as a Senior Research Scientist at the Educational Testing Service in Princeton where she and her colleagues explored appropriate assessment of young children’s science and literacy development. Dr. Jones has been a Visiting Associate Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and early in her career was a faculty member at Lehman College.
She is a member of the Advisory Board of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education (DBASSE) and served as a member of the National Academy of Science’s consensus committees that produced Early Childhood Assessment: Why, What and How and Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8: A Unifying Foundation. Dr. Jones attended Hunter College and earned both a masters and PhD from Northwestern University.
Deborah Leong
Director, Co-founder, and President
Deborah Leong is a leading authority on the development of executive functions, Vygotskian approach, and early childhood assessments, and author of numerous books and articles on the topics. She is a Professor Emerita of Cognitive Developmental Psychology at Metropolitan State University of Denver, where she taught for 36 years, and a former director of Auraria Early Learning Center. Dr. Leong developed the Tools of the Mind approach with Dr. Bodrova with whom she has written numerous books, articles, and educational videos on the Vygotskian Approach to Psychology and the development of play. She received a BA in Psychology from Stanford University; a MEd from Harvard University; and a PhD in Psychological Studies in Education and Developmental Psychology from Stanford University.
Deborah Leong is a leading authority on the development of executive functions, Vygotskian approach, and early childhood assessments, and author of numerous books and articles on the topics. She is a Professor Emerita of Cognitive Developmental Psychology at Metropolitan State University of Denver, where she taught for 36 years, and a former director of Auraria Early Learning Center. Dr. Leong developed the Tools of the Mind approach with Dr. Bodrova with whom she has written numerous books, articles, and educational videos on the Vygotskian Approach to Psychology and the development of play. She received a BA in Psychology from Stanford University; a MEd from Harvard University; and a PhD in Psychological Studies in Education and Developmental Psychology from Stanford University.