What is the Family Advisory Board?
At OECI, it’s our mission to make Milwaukee a fabulous place to raise children. So what will that take? Our Family Advisory Board gives input on how to make our city better for families with small children. Made up of current or past caregivers for children 0-3 years old, the FAB Team shares ideas to give all our children a great start in life.
Meet our FAB Members
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Milwaukee native Sally Yeldell has raised four children here, who now range from 18 to 32 years old. A former Head Start teacher, she currently serves as coordinator of the Best Babies Zone in the Westlawn housing development and has been a community ambassador for the Westlawn Partnership for a Healthy Environment for almost 10 years. We chatted with her about the Family Advisory Board and her ideas for helping Milwaukee families.
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Educator and Michigan native Tiffanie Lawson has lived and worked in Milwaukee since landing a job with MPS right after college. She has taught with Milwaukee Public Schools for over 20 years and is currently teaching Head Start.
She lives in Milwaukee with her Middle Schooler and husband. Tiffanie is a Member of the MPS/MKE Early Childhood 1,825 Initiative Team.
The MPS/MKE Early Childhood 1,825 Initiative is an opportunity for members of the Milwaukee community, as key stakeholders, to partner with Milwaukee Public Schools in a collective effort to provide learning experiences of the highest quality for all of Milwaukee’s children. She started her work with OECI as a consultant on the Pop Spots Project.
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Sheila Cruz is a Head Start teacher and mother of two children, who are 8 years old and one and a half. She got involved with the Office of Early Childhood Initiatives after taking part in the LENA Start program, which helps parents of infants learn to build their babies’ brains through interactive talk. We chatted with Sheila about her experiences doing the LENA program with her 1.5-year-old, plus what she’d like to see for Milwaukee families.
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Maria Beltran was born and raised in Milwaukee, WI and has lived in Lindsay Heights for the past 30+ years.
To Maria, Early Childhood Initiatives means helping our children with their brain development by having the tools and strategies for brain development and being able to have resources and activities for our families of young children interact and help their children learn positive healthy experiences. To teach our children that they to Matter and they are all Smart.
She is currently the President of Parent Policy Council for HeadStart at Bruce Guadalupe Community School and volunteer on Parent Involvement Committee. She is also a Strong Community Organizer of Lindsay Heights and part of The Communications Team. Maria is a Participant of C.O.L.E. Parent Lead and is currently training at Sixteenth Street Community Health Centers to bring the Lead Outreach Program to the Northside of Milwaukee to help fight the LEAD Epidemic.
As an Ambassador of Mighty Small Moments, she is able to do what she loves, which includes learning, reading and being able to participate in fun events with my family. She also Love Dancing!
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Born and raised in the city of Milwaukee, Elston Hortman grew up on 13th and McKinley. He watched the demolition for, and the building of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Park. He's a product of Milwaukee Public Schools and went to Seifert Elementary, Roosevelt Junior High, and North Division High School.
After graduating from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee in 1990 with a Bachelor's Degree in Zoology, Elston fell into Education (he needed a job with health insurance;son on the way).
He began his 30 years of educational experience as a paraprofessional aide at what was then known as Victor Berger Elementary School. He got his teaching license through the MMTEP Program with MPS in 1997 and his Master's in Curriculum and Instruction from UW-Milwaukee in 2003. He has volunteered with the MPS tutoring program from 1990 until it ended in 2020.
Elston's 30 + years of teaching experience (public schools, private schools, Title I tutoring companies and SES tutoring agencies) have shown him what works and what doesn't in the education of urban youth. He is currently a Family Engagement Coordinator for the SPARK Program of the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Milwaukee and holds a Lifetime DPI Teaching License.
He is the single parent of a 31-year old son who is also a product of MPS, UW-Milwaukee and is now gainfully employed, married and the father of three living in Atlanta, Georgia.
" I believe that a good education starts in the womb. Children need to be read to beginning before they're born. The earlier they fall in love with learning the easier it becomes to educate them. I would like to see the lines between school, the community and future careers blurred, so that children will be able to easier make the transition between formal education and real life."
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Sujatha Kancharla is an educator and mother to two cuties - a 7 year old girl and a 3 year old boy.
Her Hobbies:
Spending time with my family and playing with her kids
Learning more about community opportunities and taking part in those services .
Reading books with my kids and watching movies
Why OECI matters to her:
Early childhood initiatives means a lot by giving a lot to the caregivers and parents of 0-3yr old a lot of opportunities by guiding them different ways to engage the little ones and how their brain develops at very young age. provides different materials for the families to engage them in reading and spending time with kids. OECI is always a best opportunity for us to take part in .
Interested in Serving on the FAB Team?
There are no openings on the FAB Team at this time. Contact us for other ways to get involved.
We’re always looking for committed, forward-thinking Milwaukeeans to help us set our community’s kids up for success.
FAB Team members serve an initial one-year term, after which OECI may invite them to continue.
The board meets monthly. (Read the full FAB Membership Guidelines.)