Dr Cynthia Lynn-Garbe

I've been in the early childhood profession for 30 years and have held a variety of positions, including a classroom teacher, an adjunct professor at the University of Buffalo, a master teacher at the Early Childhood Research Center, an education specialist at the Research Foundation for SUNY, a child researcher at Fisher-Price, an early childhood consultant, and finally a director at Westminster Early Childhood Programs. Westminster is an early care and education program that is celebrating its 76th year. It is a premier program in Buffalo that is accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and QualityStarsNY. Being accredited communicates to our community that we meet the high standards required of a high-quality program. Our program offers an engaging developmentally appropriate curriculum that emphasizes the importance of play and exploration, focuses on the whole child, particularly social and emotional development, and effective communication with parents. Our program partners with the community including offering Universal Prekindergarten for the Buffalo Public Schools, providing mentoring to student teachers and lab students from SUNY Erie College, and collaborating with the University at Buffalo on early childhood research studies. My role as a director is multifaceted, including adapting and transitioning between administrative, educational, and leadership responsibilities. These roles include maintaining our NAEYC and QualityStarsNY accreditation, managing a two-million dollar budget, following the Office of Child and Family Services regulations, maintaining contracts for our partnership with Buffalo Public Schools, collaborating with SUNY Erie college's early childhood department, developing program policies and procedures, providing guidance and instruction to my teaching staff, managing payroll, writing grants to fund our program, and on boarding and guiding new teachers. We currently have 45 staff, most are teachers and teacher assistants and 150 children. We also have kitchen staff, a secretary, a parent engagement coordinator, and an admissions person. The success of our program is the result of a dedicated staff, strong support from alumni, an engaging curriculum, and our partnerships with the community establishments.  Our program is a testament to what a high quality program can do to support the community.