How deep is your advocacy bench? Would you like to attract more advocates for your work while supporting your existing team in growth, capacity and well-being? 

It’s time to make your plans for September 28th and 29th when we will unite to champion the cause of Montessori education and drive positive policy change.  It is a unique opportunity to collaborate with Montessori advocates across our country.  
 
MPPI has heard these needs and is so pleased to welcome Lucy Recio, policy advocate, community organizer, and advocate nurturing expert to provide practical support for your state groups! 

Lucy Recio: For more than 15 years, Lucy Recio has built campaigns, programs, and systems to inform education policy and shape public understanding and discourse around the need to transform our nation’s education system. A community organizer and resource mobilizer, Lucy’s steadfast passion is fueled by creating safe, affirming spaces where the voices, expertise, and experiences of directly impacted individuals drive equity and power building conversations in the education sector. She has played instrumental roles in shaping public narratives around prenatal to career education, helped secure more than $54 billion in COVID-19 relief dollars for the child care sector, and has helped grow a national movement of early childhood educators invested in shaping the policies and systems impacting their profession.   

She has held leadership roles at the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), the National Black Child Development Institute (NBCDI), and the Office of the Bronx Borough President in New York City, as well as supported numerous state and local organizations advance their policy, advocacy, communications, and movement building strategies as a consultant.  

Invested in nurturing multiple vehicles for growing advocate capacity and skill, Lucy also serves as an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater for their online Masters Program in Early Childhood Education Policy and sits on the governing boards for The Trust for Learning and Childhood Education International. She has also previously taught at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy and lectured at New York University, the University of Maryland, Montgomery College, and other institutions of higher education.   

Lucy holds a master’s in public administration, a distinction she received as a National Urban Fellow, as well as a bachelor’s degree in international culture and politics and a certificate in justice and peace studies from Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. She is an emergent practitioner in the field of healing justice with certifications in somatic embodiment, nervous system regulation strategies, and healing-centered education and has additional training in ecotherapy, mindfulness, cultural wayfinding, and writing therapy.   

Born on the beautiful island of the Dominican Republic, raised in the heart of the South Bronx, and nurtured in her adulthood by the bold and tenacious spirit of Washington, DC, Lucy is grateful to call each of these places home, a joy she shares alongside her partner and more than 40 plant babies. 

We invite you to participate in this transformative event, where the power of advocacy and the potential of Montessori education converge. Your presence will make a meaningful difference to the Montessori community and ensure that more families have access to th high quality Montessori schools and programs.

Click here for registration and more information regarding the MPPI 2024 Advocacy Conference