The Child Educational Center board of trustees announced the official appointment of Allegra Inganni and Ellen Veselack as the organization’s new co-executive directors.
Both Inganni and Vesekack have brought a wealth of experience, knowledge and passion to these roles in the interim capacity, as the board of trustees carefully examined how to best fill this important position. For the first time in the school’s 44-year history, the board has decided to follow in the footsteps of other nonprofit organizations by appointing two leaders to share and support each other in this great responsibility.
For more than 25 years, Veselack has been an integral part of the CEC’s success and has shared her grace, spirit and immense knowledge of child development with the entire CEC community. In her 44 years in the field, she has worked with children from infancy through age 6, with most of her experience in the preschool and kindergarten years. Veselack graduated from Indiana University in 1979 with a bachelor’s degree in elementary education, with an emphasis in early childhood. She has also served as an assistant director and director in other centers prior to the CEC. She spent the first, eight years at the CEC in the preschool yard as a master lead teacher and became the director of the preschool program in January 2005. In collaboration with dimensions educational research foundation in Lincoln, Nebraska, she leads the research division at the CEC where she studies the developmental benefits of children’s education in the outdoor classroom. She is also a consultant and trainer, covering all topics related to quality programming, especially in the outdoor classroom, including physical space, materials, and teacher philosophy/attitudes. She has presented at many local, state, national and international conferences on a range of topics.
Inganni has served as the school-age program director for CEC in La Cañada for more than 15 years. In her more than 20 years at the CEC she has cultivated warm and productive relationships with the CEC’s many school-age partners, working closely with parents, children, and local schools. Inganni has been in the field of education and psychology for more than 20 years, specializing in early childhood and school age child care, as well as individual and family therapy. After graduating from Massachusetts College of Art with a bachelor’s in fine arts and art education, Inganni attended Leslie University for graduate school to pursue her master’s in counseling psychology. Prior to moving to California, Inganni was the Program Director for Wellesley College’s school age childcare program and worked as both a teacher and family-child therapist throughout the Boston area. As a mother of two young daughters, Inganni feels strongly about her work with girls and women. Having dedicated her career to working with children, she will always be an advocate for them. Her love of art, education, and human psychology are fulfilled by working with children every day.
Inganni and Veselack are both excited for the opportunity to lead the Child Educational Center. With the unanimous support of the board of trustees, their combined experiences will bring a wealth of expertise to the leadership of the CEC. The entire community enthusiastically looks forward to this new chapter.
The Child Educational Center is an innovative, nationally accredited early care and education organization with a pioneering focus on progressive education and outdoor learning. The CEC’s programs have served as a leader in early childhood education since 1979 and emphasize a commitment to nurturing children’s physical and psychological well-being.
The CEC follows the natural outdoor classroom philosophy in its care and education of young children. Researchers have established that to nurture the whole child, early childhood education needs to follow the fundamental principle that children are learning everywhere and all the time. Instead of developmentally inappropriate early academics, children need a broad variety of learning experiences and opportunities to grow in areas such as gross and fine motor development, social-emotional development, language development and creative expression. Mastery of the skills associated with these areas is critical for healthy development as well as later academic success and requires an educational format that is very different from a traditional elementary classroom. The outdoor classroom evolves from the real needs of children, offers activities that are personally meaningful to them, and fully embraces developmentally appropriate practices in early care. In 1994, the CEC began providing consulting services on the design, development and implementation of child care programs through its initiative, the outdoor classroom project.
First published in the December 28 print issue of the Outlook Valley Sun.
