GET TO KNOW
The MLICCI Team
The Mississippi Low Income Child Care Initiative (MLICCI) is a statewide non-profit public policy advocacy organization working to strengthen women’s economic security in Mississippi by making child care affordable for low-income working moms, achieving gender and racial equity in the workforce and making the safety net work for women.
CAROL BURNETT
Executive Director
cburnett@mschildcare.org
ROBERTA AVILA
Child Care Leadership Team Coordinator
ravila@mschildcare.org
JEARLEAN OSBORNE
Child Care Organizer
josborne@mschildcare.org
MATT WILLIAMS
Director of Research
mwilliams@mschildcare.org
ZAFFRON C. KING
EESM Case Manager
zking@mschildcare.org
BELINDA THORNTON
Case Manager
bthornton@mschildcare.org
MONICA BRAXTON
EESM Case Manager
mbraxton@mschildcare.org
KAREN BLUMENBERG
EESM Case Manager
kblumenberg@mschildcare.org
GET TO KNOW
The MLICCI Board
DOROTHY LEWIS
Director of the Precious Years Child Development Center
NSOMBI LAMBRIGHT
Executive Director of
One Voice
TRACEY DEVRIES
Executive Director of the Women’s Foundation of Mississippi
DR. ROSHUNDA HARRIS-ALLEN
Alderman At Large, City of Byram
SHIRLEY MOCK
Chief Operating Officer of One Voice
DR. WANDA NEWELL
Interim Dean of the School of Education at University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff
JOE HUDSON
Attorney
PAHEADRA ROBINSON
Attorney, Founder of the Bratton Group, LLC.
Learn about MLICCI
In-Depth with the MLICCI Team
ABOUT CAROL BURNETT
Executive Director
cburnett@mschildcare.org
Carol is founder and executive director of the Mississippi Low-Income Child Care Initiative. She is also executive director of Moore Community House, a nonprofit providing affordable child care and job training in nontraditional occupations for low-income single mothers in Biloxi. Carol served as Mississippi’s federal child care administrator at the Department of Human Services during the Musgrove Administration. Carol served as NGO delegate to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, attended the White House Summit on Working Families during the Obama Administration, and worked with the Center for American Progress Faith and Reproductive Justice Institute. Her awards include the Ms. Foundation Gloria Award, Outstanding Woman of the Gulf Coast Award, Mississippi Religious Leadership Conference Founder’s Award, and MS State NAACP Vernon Dahmer award. Carol graduated from Union Theological Seminary in New York, and is a United Methodist minister, one of the first women in Mississippi to be ordained.
ABOUT ROBERTA AVILA
Child Care Leadership Team Coordinator
ravila@mschildcare.org
Roberta has served as a social justice advocate for 35 years. In 1998, Roberta served as the Director of the Early Head Start Program for Moore Community House. After Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, Roberta was the executive director for the Mississippi Coast Interfaith Disaster Task Force and then the Steps Coalition, organizations that advocated for low- income residents’ recovery. In 2008, she received the Mutual of America Community Partnership Award in 2011; in 2017, she received the Biloxi Branch NAACP Community Service Award. Roberta served as one of 20 coach/mentors to the 2014 inaugural class of the WK Kellogg Community Leadership Network, which focused on helping vulnerable children and their families achieve optimal health, well-being and economic security. Roberta is a racial healing practitioner and served in that role for the WK Kellogg America Healing convenings. She currently serves as a Board Officer for El Pueblo, a nonprofit that serves immigrants.
ABOUT JEARLEAN OSBORNE
Child Care Organizer
josborne@mschildcare.org
Jearlean has 40+ years of experience as a social justice advocate and activist. Her work throughout the years of organizing has been tailored to meet the needs of people where they are. Jearlean draws from her experience and expertise in early childhood development, adult literacy, and advocacy for low-income families, promoting gender equity and racial diversity. Jearlean helped lead MLICCI’s “More is Caught than Taught” project, which resulted in the launch of “Grassroots Leadership,” and she continues to provide on-site training for child care centers to include diversity and anti-bias values in child care practice, as well as implement quality improvements required by the state in financially affordable ways.As a learner-centered, activist adult educator in the tradition of Paulo Freire and Septima Clark, Jearlean authored adult literacy curricula such as “Welfare Rights and Change” during Mississippi’s battle over “Workfirst” welfare reform that harmed female welfare recipients in her adult literacy classes.Jearlean has earned numerous awards including the NAACP Outstanding Community Service Award, Zeta Phi Beta Outstanding Service Award, Laurel Wreath Award, SRS Outstanding Citizen Female Award, and 1993 graduate of Leadership Gulf Coast.
ABOUT MATT WILLIAMS
Director of Research
mwilliams@mschildcare.org
Matt Williams is director of research with the Mississippi Low-Income Child Care Initiative. Matt conducts research and policy analysis to support reforms and best practices in Mississippi’s public safety net programs with a primary focus on CCDF and on Mississippi’s public workforce training and education systems. Applying a gender and race equity lens, Matt’s policy research focuses on intersectionality and aligning systems of support to better serve low-income women and single moms in Mississippi. Matt holds a B.A. and M.A. in Political Science from the University of Southern Mississippi.
ABOUT MONICA BRAXTON
Case Manager
mbraxton@mschildcare.org
As the Twin District Case Manager for MLICCI’s Employment Equity for Single Moms, Monica works with eligible single mothers to identify needed resources such as education, career training and job opportunities, and childcare assistance, all to help those single moms remove barriers to financial independence and personal empowerment.
A lifelong resident of the Mississippi Gulf Coast, Monica earned her BSB from William Carey (’98) with an emphasis in Accounting and a minor in Psychology. She later finished her MBA at WC (’07).
Monica has 20+ years of experience in the social services field working with agencies that include: The Biloxi Housing Authority, the Claudia M. Jones Computer & Learning Center, HOPE VI Case Management, HOPE CDA- MC/MC program, Keesler Federal Credit Union, and Gulfport Job Corps Center.
ABOUT ZAFFRON C. KING
Case Manager
zking@mschildcare.org
Zaffron C. King, a native of San Diego, CA. has resided in Northeast Mississippi since 1995 with her husband, three children, and three grandchildren. Zaffron believes in community and unity, she worked as the Lee County Health Department Social Worker. Zaffron graduated from The University of Mississippi with a Social Work bachelor’s degree and currently working on obtaining her Social Work master’s degree. Zaffron has over ten years serving individuals, families, and communities. Zaffron is very active serving within the community. She is a proud active member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and executive board member-Ivy Reporter for her chapter.
ABOUT BELINDA THORNTON
Case Manager
bthornton@mschildcare.org
Belinda Thornton is a Jackson, MS native, having graduated from Tougaloo College with a B.A. in Psychology/Mental Health with an emphasis in Early Childhood Education. She also earned a Master’s degree in Social Work from the University of Southern Mississippi and a Master’s of Education in School Psychometry from Mississippi College.
Belinda has 32 years of experience as a children’s mental health therapist and social worker as well as a domestic violence social worker. In addition, she is an active member of the Mississippi Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, the Jackson Chapter of Black Social Workers, the National Association for the Education of Young Children, Zero to Three, Holy Ghost Catholic Church Ladies Auxiliary, and serves as Secretary of the Holy Ghost Catholic Church St. Martin De Porres Circle. She is a true advocate for children and families. Belinda lives by the motto: “The Three C’s in Life: Choice, Chance, Change. You must make the choice to take the chance, if you want anything in life to change.”
She has two adult children and is the legal guardian to her great niece.
ABOUT KAREN BLUMENBERG
Case Manager
kblumenberg@mschildcare.org
Karen Blumenberg was born and reared in Indianola, MS, the crown of the Mississippi Delta. Educated in Indianola Public Schools, Karen graduated from Gentry High School in 1968 and matriculated to Mississippi Valley State University that same year. She graduated from MVSU in 1974 with a degree in elementary education and began her career in education. In 1982, she received her master’s degree in elementary education from MVSU and a master’s degree in administration and supervision from Delta State University in 2000. For 37 years, Karen has served as teacher, assistant principal, and principal in the Humphreys County and Indianola Public School Districts.
Karen is not new to MLICCI. In 2012, she served with the Mississippi Low-Income Child-Care Initiative as the technical assistant for the Indianola Promise Community’s Building Educating Sustaining through Training (IPC/BEST) project. The BEST project worked with childcare centers in Indianola to help improve and enhance their services by providing resources and technical assistance to help them prepare children in their care for kindergarten.
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