Child Care Associates Names New Head Start & Early Head Start Director

Fort Worth, March 8, 2016 (Newswire.com) - ​Child Care Associates (CCA) has named Irma Peña, LMSW, as the new Director of Head Start/Early Head Start. Peña comes to CCA with 35 years of Head Start experience in management, teaching and administration. She previously worked for 30+ years with the Hidalgo County Head Start and Early Head Start program that operated 43 child development centers. Most recently, Peña served as an Early Head Start Director with an EHS-CCP grant locally in the DFW metroplex with SER National.

"Irma is a seasoned early childhood professional with demonstrated management skills for running a program of scale," said Kara Waddell, CCA’s president and CEO. "I am impressed with the depth of Irma’s knowledge, experience and commitment to outcomes for young children from low-income families. She connects with families in a special way. Together with Irma and the CCA early childhood team, we’re defining quality classrooms, quality teachers and the competent use of data to help ensure every child has an equal chance at school success.”

Together with Irma and the CCA early childhood team, we're defining quality classrooms, quality teachers and the competent use of data to help ensure every child has an equal chance at school success."

Kara Waddell, President/CEO, Child Care Associates

About Child Care Associates

Child Care Associates is a $70M non-profit organization serving the greater Tarrant County community since 1968. CCA is a champion in providing high quality early learning opportunities to the most vulnerable families in Tarrant County. Today, CCA employs nearly 500 early childhood educators, specialists and staff to deliver Head Start and Early Head Start services. CCA partners with seven Independent School Districts (ISDs) to jointly deliver Pre-K and Head Start in 75 joint, full-day Pre-K classrooms. 2,310 infants, toddlers and preschoolers receive Head Start and Early Head Start services across Tarrant County.

CCA manages $36m in funding from the Workforce Board of Tarrant County, to operate Child Care Management Services (CCMS).  CCMS helps cover the cost of quality child care for approximately 11,000 children of low-income, working families annually.  CCA also manages the Texas Rising Stars program systematically improving the quality of child care and education in child care programs across Tarrant County.

 Contact: Kara Waddell, president/CEO:  [email protected]; 817.838.0055 ​