T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood® National Center is led by a team of dedicated experts whose institutional knowledge is the foundation of the Center’s work.

Kristi Snuggs, President

Dr. Kristi Snuggs became President of Child Care Services Association (CCSA) in November 2022. Previously, Kristi was Director of the NC Division of Child Development and Early Education (DCDEE). In this role she has worked with CCSA, the NC CCR&R Council, T.E.A.C.H., WAGE$ and AWARD$. She has also worked at the national level on the PDG grant for North Carolina. Prior to this role, she was the Child Development Division Director of Nash-Edgecombe Economic Development, Vice President of Instruction for Edgecombe Community College and an educational consultant for Early Childhood Teacher Education for the NC Community College System.

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Edith Locke, Senior Vice President of Professional Development Initiatives

Edith currently serves as Senior Vice President of CCSA’s Professional Development Initiatives Division. In 1993, Edith joined CCSA as the T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood® Project was expanding into a statewide early childhood workforce initiative in North Carolina. Throughout her 27-year history with CCSA, her role has evolved. In the mid-1990s, when CCSA first became an administrative home for various Smart Start funded initiatives in Orange County, Edith managed programs on the local level before becoming the lead program administrator for North Carolina’s T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood® Scholarship Program in 1996, a function she continues to perform.

In 2002, Edith joined the T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood® National Center and today serves as a technical assistance specialist responsible for supporting other early childhood focused organizations, nationwide, in their administration of their respective T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood® Scholarship Programs. Throughout her tenure, Edith has been a dedicated early education workforce advocate through her service on a variety of committees at the local, state and national levels.

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Allison Miller, Vice President of Compensation Initiatives

Allison has been with CCSA since 1994 and she oversees the N.C. education-based salary supplement initiatives, the Child Care WAGE$® Program, and Infant-Toddler Educator AWARD$®. She works with the states that are interested in WAGE$ or who hold a WAGE$ license. She is the person to contact regarding the day-to-day operations of WAGE$ Programs and affiliates. This includes programmatic issues such as policies, procedures, protocols and monitoring. She provides training and ongoing programmatic technical assistance, coordinates monitoring visits and reviews competency assessments for WAGE$ states.

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Jill Arnold, Director of Database Support and Services

Jill has been with CCSA since 2000, most recently managing national database support and training as Director of Database Support and Services. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Child Development as well as an MBA. Jill supports the Center by providing database quality control oversight for all states’ teams via periodic, individualized database assessments. Additionally, she provides training on the current T.E.A.C.H. database.

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Megan Burk, Director of Workforce Initiatives

Megan is the Workforce Initiatives Director for the Center. She has worked in the early childhood profession for nearly 20 years in a variety of roles from Pre-kindergarten teacher, Education Coordinator, Site Director and the T.E.A.C.H. Program Director for the Texas Association for the Education of Young Children. She holds a Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership. She supports T.E.A.C.H. and WAGE$ programs with technical assistance and reporting, supporting the competency review process and assisting with special projects supported by the Center. 

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Judy Leinbach, National Center Coordinator

Judy joined the team in 2016 after a varied career path, including engineering, project management, child care, paralegal services and office management. Judy maintains the files for each T.E.A.C.H. Program, including licenses, reports and other documents. She also prepares invoices and updates the website. She relies on the broad range of her past experiences to keep the Center running smoothly.

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