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.