Cynthia Lynn Garbe

I've been in the early childhood profession for 30 years, with a variety of positions ranging from classroom teacher to adjunct at the University of Buffalo, to childhood researcher at the Research Foundation at the Early Childhood Research Center. I was a child researcher at Fisher-Price, did some consulting on my own, and then became the director here at Westminster, an early care and education program that's been around for 76 years. We are accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children and Quality Stars, and we promote development of the entire child through play-based learning. We have a really nice relationship with the Buffalo Public Schools and provide universal pre-K for children here, plus we also have other classes. We work with SUNY Erie College and UB researchers when they're looking for children to investigate different things. As director, I'm responsible for hiring, orienting, and managing the staff - there's 40 right now, most of them teachers, either lead or teacher assistant. We also have a kitchen staff, a secretary, and somebody that does admissions. I do the budgeting, the licensing because we have to be licensed by New York State, and the accreditation for the National Association for the Education of Young Children and Quality Stars. It's really a well-oiled machine right now - we've had a lot of years to get this right.