Her Story
About Alexandria
Alexandria Smith is the Training Coordinator and Assistant Director at Child Care Resources, a non-profit organization in Joliet, Illinois, dedicated to supporting child care providers. With more than two decades in the nonprofit field, she began her journey in early childhood education through a Head Start program, where she held various positions including assistant teacher, lead teacher, and parent-child educator over 14 years. For nearly four years, she has been with Child Care Resources, advancing to her current leadership role where she oversees training initiatives, assists with provider recruitment and retention, coordinates professional development opportunities, and helps distribute grant funding to improve child care centers. Her work centers on delivering services that help providers obtain licenses, meet professional development requirements, and enhance program quality for children and families.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Alexandria
01What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Take your time. You're not gonna learn everything rightly. Some things, a lot of things take time. You're not going to get it right, right off the top. If you do, that's great, but for the most part, just be patient and take your time.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Let your creativity shine, because it's always different ways to get those providers to want to participate in those trainings. Think about what would interest someone to obtain training for early childhood? What will grasp their attention? Holding on to your creativity.
03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
It's always opportunity in this field. Someone always needs training for child care. Someone always is opening up a child care center because in their area, it may be lacking child care centers. So in this field there's really always an opportunity to move up.
04What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Definitely grace for others all the time.
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