John Borrero: Executive Director
Oak Park, IL – Early childhood leader and educator John Borrero has been selected as Executive Director of the Collaboration for Early Childhood. For almost 30 years, Borrero has devoted his career to working on behalf of children and families in underserved communities. The Collaboration for Early Childhood champions high-quality early childhood care and learning experiences and support for families so all children develop their full potential.
Borrero comes to the Collaboration for Early Childhood from the National Center on Early Childhood Health and Wellness at the American Academy of Pediatrics. As Manager of Child Care and Education Initiatives, Borrero oversaw educational content for a $34 million, five-year health education and resource development contract funded by the U.S. Administration for Children and Families (ACF). His leadership role on the national early childhood landscape comes as a culmination of more than a decade of similar grant-based work serving children and families on behalf of ACF and its programs.
Before relocating to Illinois, Borrero served as Director of Education and Disabilities for the City of New York’s publicly funded preschool programs. Prior to that, he held of number of national and regional leadership positions, including those with the Office of Head Start’s National Center on Cultural and Linguistic Responsiveness; the National Head Start Family Literacy Center and the Head Start Regional Training and Technical Assistance team for Region II (New York).
Borrero has extensive experience in child development and early childhood curriculum, which has made it possible for him to contribute to the field of teacher development as a trainer for the Child Development Associate (CDA) credentialing program and through several early childhood adjunct faculty positions, most recently at New York University’s (NYU) School of Continuing and Professional Studies, and at Bank Street College of Education in New York City. He received a M.Ed. from Boston College and a B.A. from Wesleyan University.
Founded in 2002 by all six of Oak Park’s governing bodies, the Collaboration for Early Childhood is a public/private partnership that leverages the resources of more than 70 local agencies to promote the development of a comprehensive, community-wide system of high-quality programs and services to foster physical, cognitive and social-emotional development during the critical first five years of life. For more information, visit www.collab4kids.org.
