Hawaii Gov Names Early Childhood Coordinator
UPDATED 6/9/11 11:13 a.m.
Gov. Neil Abercrombie announced a new leadership position in his office Thursday, and the person to fill it. Terry Lock will be Hawaii’s first Early Childhood Coordinator, organizing efforts across state departments and in the private sector.
Lock’s appointment is Abercrombie’s first step in starting a Department on Early Childhood, he said at a news conference. She will be the early childhood point person for his administration and will have authority to work with the state’s departments of health, human services, education and other programs to synthesize services and coordinate available funds for the state’s toddlers.
Lock currently serves as director of the community-based early childhood division of Kamehameha Schools, serving more than 2,000 Native Hawaiian children from prenatal to age 5. She was previously with the National Head Start Fellowship in the in Washington, D.C. and served as the early childhood resource coordinator for Maui County.
She graduated from Maui High School, holds a B.S. in Human Development from the University of Hawaii at Manoa and an M.A. in Human Development from Pacific Oaks College in Pasadena.
Although Hawaii already leads the way when it comes to educating toddlers, Abercrombie made early childhood one of his campaign priorities. He later promised in his State of the State to establish an entire department for early childhood education. He said he had already begun laying the groundwork for public-private partnerships that would make the early childhood leadership position possible.
Legislators introduced several bills this year that focused on providing education opportunities for Hawaii’s youngest children, but none of them were part of the governor’s bill package and none made it into law.
Earlier this year, U.S. Congresswoman Mazie Hirono was instrumental in getting the U.S. Department of Education to design a Race to the Top competition that would encourage early childhood reforms.
