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Joan Lombardi

Center for Child and Human Development
Collaborative on Global Children's Issues

Joan Lombardi is a senior scholar at the Center for Child and Human Development and a senior fellow with the Collaborative on Global Children's Issues at Georgetown University. Over the past 50 years, Joan has made significant contributions in the areas of child and family policy as an innovative leader and policy advisor to national and international organizations and foundations and as a public servant.

  • Advises philanthropy, public agencies, and others on domestic and global issues facing young children, families, and communities.
  • Chairs the National Advisory Team for the Rapid Assessment of Pandemic Impact on Development-Early Childhood (RAPID-EC).
  • Serves on the Executive Leadership Council of the global Early Childhood Development Action Network (ECDAN) and was instrumental in launching the Global Forum for Childcare and the Global Home-Based Childcare Initiative sponsored by ECDAN and SPRING Impact.
  • Co-chairs the Research Forum on Young Children in Emergencies sponsored by the Moving Minds Alliance.
  • Is a visiting scholar at the Stanford Center on Early Childhood, Graduate School of Education, Stanford University.
  • 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.
  • Served as a moderator of the event “The Implications of Climate Change: How we can support young children’s healthy development” sponsored by the Clinton Global Initiative.
  • Served as a moderator of the webinar “Early Childhood Development as a Tool for Building Climate Change Resilience, Adaptation and Mitigation – Experiences from Asia Pacific and Africa” hosted by the Early Childhood Regional Networks – Africa Early Childhood Network (AfECN), Arab Network for Early Childhood Development (ANECD), Asia-Pacific Regional Network for Early Childhood (ARNEC), and International Step by Step Association (ISSA) and Early Childhood Development Action Network (ECDAN).

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