The inaugural cohort of 38 ELAN Fellows participated from 2017-2020. The BUILD Initiative has selected a new cohort of ELAN Fellows for 2021-23. They include leaders from Arizona, California, the District of Columbia, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia and Washington. The 29 current Fellows work in government at the state, federal, county, and city level, in advocacy organizations, school districts, and other programs. A majority work in early care and education, health or mental health systems, while others work in family support, food access, workforce, home visiting, racial equity and social justice programs, or early childhood more generally.

ELAN Goals

• Support leaders in developing the will and skill to question personal assumptions and institutional and structural policies and practices and work collaboratively to develop strategies that promote early childhood systems that are explicitly and measurably equitable and excellent for all children.
• Build the capacity of members to critically examine, with a racial equity lens, institutional and structural policies and practices in the distribution of state and federal resources (e.g., funding and services).
• Advance change through intentional actions that avoid further disadvantaging children and families of color and those in poverty, and members of the early childhood workforce.

Our Work

Fellows participate in carefully developed activities including national meetings, discussion groups, Communities of Practice, faculty mentoring, individual projects, and site visits. These activities support a primary objective of the ELAN — the personal and interpersonal development of Fellows to position themselves to take action within their institutions for institutional change and with other institutions for structural change.