Portia Kennel

Quality Early Care and Education Revisited: What It Means and What It Takes

Portia Kennel is a veteran leader in the early childhood field. Before joining the Buffett Early Childhood Fund as a senior advisor in 2015, she worked as the senior vice president for program innovation at Start Early (formerly the Ounce of Prevention Fund) in Chicago. In her current role, Kennel leads efforts to develop family engagement program models that empower parents as a force for change in their families, schools, and communities. Kennel has more than 25 years of experience designing, implementing, and scaling effective, research-based early childhood education and family support program models for children and their families. In 2000, she created and led the implementation of the first Educare School on Chicago’s south side. As the founding executive director of the Educare Learning Network, Kennel also led the national expansion of Educare to a diverse range of communities across America. Her work is grounded in an understanding of early childhood development, teaching practices, family systems and clinical issues related to working with families in communities facing educational, social, economic and other challenges. Kennel holds a master’s degree in social work from the University of Illinois and is a Zero to Three Fellow. In addition, she is a 2020 recipient of the Global MindED Inclusive Leader Award in Early Childhood Education and has served on a variety of boards and task forces. Kennel lives in Omaha.