Young children thrive in nurturing families and supportive communities.
Early Opportunities LLC was founded by Joan Lombardi, PhD. in 2011, as an advisory service to philanthropy both internationally and in the United States. Its focus is on young children, families, and the communities that support them. Over the years Joan has provided advisement to a number of foundations and international organizations. Currently she serves as the advisor to the Buffett Early Childhood Fund and the Global Education Fund of the Bainum Family Foundation, among others.
The Early Opportunities Initiative was launched by Joan in 2022, focused on raising awareness about the importance of nurturing care and highlighting the impact of emergencies on young children and families—from conflict to climate change— along with supporting solutions to prevent and address them. The Initiative includes short articles on emerging issues facing young children and families, microgrants through the Early Opportunities Fund, and mentoring and support for leaders and organizations in the field, along with resource-sharing. The Early Opportunities Initiative is built on the strong belief that every person can make a difference and that hope springs from action.
Joan Lombardi, Ph.D. is the founding director of the Early Opportunities Initiative and the Principal Advisor and Adjunct Professor at the Stanford Center on Early Childhood, Graduate School of Education, Stanford University. She is the co-founder and senior advisor of the Georgetown Collaborative on Global Children’s Issues. Over the past 50 years Joan has made significant contributions in the areas of child and family policy as an innovative leader. She served as the first Deputy Assistant Secretary for Early Childhood during the Obama Administration and the first Director of the Child Care Bureau during the Clinton Administration.
Along with public service, Joan has served as a policy advisor to numerous national and international organizations and written extensively on early childhood development. She is the author of Time to Care: Redesigning Child Care to Promote Education, Support Families and Build Communities and co-editor of Beacon of Hope: The Promise of Early Head Start for America’s Youngest Children. She was the founding Chair of the Birth to Five Policy Alliance, now the Alliance for Early Success. In 2004, Joan founded Global Leaders for Young Children with the World Forum Foundation. Since that time the program has supported leadership development and mentoring to hundreds of people around the world dedicated to improving the lives of young children and families.
Currently Joan serves on the governing board of the National Black Child Development Institute, the governing board of the Global Fund for Children, and the Executive Leadership Council of the global Early Childhood Development Action Network. As part of the Early Opportunities Initiative she serves on several international advisory groups, including the research advisory on young children in emergencies of the Moving Minds Alliance, the expert advisory to the Act For Early Years Campaign coordinated by Their World, and the steering committee of NurtureFirst, working to improve and expand systems of support for home based child care around the world.
Pictured above is Joan meeting the Warrior Moms at the 2024 Investing in ECD conference in Penang.
Pictured above is Joan speaking at the Act for Early Years Symposium in New York City on September 25, 2024.