Helen Blank recently retired as the Director of Child Care and Early Learning at the National Women’s Law Center, where she worked on child care and early education issues for sixteen years.

Previously, Ms. Blank served twenty-four years as the Director of the Child Care and Development Division at the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF). While at CDF, Ms. Blank spearheaded a variety of efforts to enact and fund landmark early learning legislation focusing on child care, Head Start, preschool, and after-school. She organized and led the campaign for the passage of the Child Care and Development Block Grant. Additionally, she developed a guide for implementation of the legislation that was widely used by state policymakers and child care leaders. In 1991, she led an effective campaign to convince the Bush administration to issue regulations for the Child Care and Development Block Grant that allowed states to use the new federal funds in the best interests of children. She was also a leader in efforts to expand and improve the child care provisions in welfare reform, subsequently developing a guide to assist states in implementing the provisions. Recently, she led efforts to win the largest increase in child care funding in history.

While at CDF, she created and led the Emerging Leaders Program for emerging leaders in early care and education and at the National Women’s Law Center, co-directed the Progressive Leadership and Advocacy Network (PLAN) for emerging leaders focusing on issues affecting low-income women and their families.

Prior to her work at CDF, she spent two years at the Child Welfare League of America where she was instrumental in the enactment and funding of child welfare reform legislation. Working with the National Child Nutrition Project , she directed a model food stamp outreach campaign in the Washington metropolitan area that increased food stamp participation and resulted in major improvements in the administration of the program in several local jurisdictions. In addition, she helped advocate for replication of this campaign in a number of states.

Ms. Blank is a member of Teach for America’s Early Childhood Advisory Board, the T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood Advisory Committee, All Our Kin, the Child Care Food Program Sponsors’ Forum, and the SEIU ESF.

Helen Blank  will be awarded the 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award for her many years of service to improving quality and access to early childhood care and education on November 7th at our Champions for Children celebration.

Don’t forget to join us for the 2019 Champions for Children and 25th Anniversary Celebration ! And keep an eye out for upcoming profiles featuring the rest of our 2019 Giraffe Award winners.