STAFF MEMBERS

Carol Burnett
Executive Director

cburnett@mschildcare.org

Carol is founder and Executive Director of the Mississippi Low-Income Child Care Initiative. She also serves as the Executive Director of Moore Community House, a nonprofit community center providing early childhood and comprehensive family programs for poor and low-income families in east Biloxi. Under Carol's direction, Moore Community House established the Gulf Coast Child Care Resource and Referral Agency and Congregations for Children — both now operating through collaborative partnerships with many other organizations.

Carol served as Director of the Mississippi Department of Human Services Office of Children and Youth, where she administered Mississippi's federally funded child care subsidy programs. She also chaired the Mississippi Department of Health Child Care Licensure Advisory Council, and is currently Commissioner on the Mississippi Commission on the Status of Women, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Mississippi Center for Justice,the East Biloxi Relief Coordination Center, the Mississippi Religious Leadership Conference, and serves on the Advisory Board of the Mississippi Economic Poicy Center.    TOP  »

She is the recipient of the Outstanding Woman of the Gulf Coast award, the Mississippi Religious Leadership Conference Founder's award and the MS State NAACP Vernon Dahmer award. Carol is an ordained United Methodist minister in the Mississippi Conference of the United Methodist Church and has a Masters Degree from Union Theological Seminary in New York, NY.

Jearlean Osborne
MCTT Organizer

josborne@mschildcare.org

Jearlean Osborne is a community organizer for the Mississippi Low Income Child Care Initiative. She has organized community groups for more than twenty years, helping them to become more self-sufficient. She uses the "learner-centered" approach for getting people to step outside their comfort zone to advocate and promote positive changes in their community. This method has proven to be very successful in getting organizations to actively seek community funding to sustain their work as well as develop a sense of commitment and ownership at the local level.

Jearlean's passion for working with communities grew out of her experiences as a disenfranchised person within her own community. She has extensive experience and expertise in: early childhood education, adult literacy, non-profit board development, and advocacy with and for poor and low-income children and their families. Jearlean served on the Mississippi Center for Nonprofits board in Jackson, Mississippi, where she was Chair of the Board Development Committee. She is currently on the boards of Coastal Family Health and Coastal Women for Change. She has written several curriculum guides: "Welfare Rights and Change," "My Community," and "The ABC'S to Advocating for The Rights of Children in the Public School System."

Jearlean is a 1993 graduate of Leadership Gulf Coast and has earned numerous awards including the Laurel Wreath Award, Zeta Phi Beta Outstanding Community Service Award, and NAACP Outstanding Community Service Award. She received her CDA certification in 1990.    TOP  »

Beth Orlansky, Esq.
Child Care Advocate

borlansky@mscenterforjustice.org

Beth has been working with the Mississippi Low-Income Child-Care Initiative in a legal capacity since October 2006 through a partnership with the Mississippi Center for Justice. Prior to becoming an advocate for affordable child care for low-income families, Beth has balanced her life between practicing law and doing volunteer work in the community. Since 1981 she has worked for several law firms in Jackson, Mississippi, establishing a precedent for working part-time in 1985.

Beth is a charter member of the National Parents for Public Schools and past president of the local chapter. She has tutored children in reading for the past 20 years, most recently with the Barksdale Reading Institute. Beth currently serves as President of the Board of the Community Stewpot and serves on the boards of St. Andrews Episcopal School, Henry S. Jacobs Camp, Union of Reform Judaism Southwest Council, and the United Way FEMA allocations committee.    TOP  »

She is a recipient of Goodwill Industries Outstanding Volunteer award. Beth received a BA in anthropology from Stanford University and a JD from the University of Tennessee School of Law.