Elizabeth Bonbright is an industry leader in Early Childhood Education policy.  Prior to joining the Tacoma School Board, she spent 22 years as the Executive Director of Child Care Aware of Washington building a network of high-quality child care providers and creating a public system to evaluate and ensure quality services.  During that time, she also served for 14 years on the National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies Board of Directors, taking on various leadership roles, including Board President and Public Policy Chair. More recently, she has worked as an Early Childhood Policy Consultant helping craft and implement policies at the State and National levels.  Elizabeth earned her undergraduate degree in Psychology from Trinity College (Hartford, CT) and completed the Evans School of Public Policy & Governance Nonprofit Executive Leadership Institute program.

 

In both 2021 and 2022, Elizabeth was elected  by her regional peers to Chair the Joint Municipal Action Committee (JMAC) -- a coalition of elected officials representing Tacoma/Pierce County governmental entities.  In this role, Elizabeth led the JMAC visioning process to strengthen inter-governmental collaboration and to innovate together to address strategically the critical policy issues facing our community as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic.  COVID-19’s disruption in our “normal” operations offered elected officials the rare opportunity to reimagine what an economically vibrant, healthy, educated, safe, more equitable and anti-racist community might look like.  This collaborative project strives to build a culture of racial justice, equity, diversity and inclusion (JEDI) creating environments that truly welcome and nurture all people – regardless of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identification, socio-economic status, homelessness, and inclusive of other community members experiencing systemic oppression.

 

Her professional experience includes serving on State and National boards including:
 

• National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies

• National Women’s Law Center as the State Early Childhood Policy Contact

• Strengthening Families United Way National Advisory Board

• WA State Leadership Council for Quality Care and Education

• WA Afterschool Network Steering Committee

• WA State Head Start-State Collaboration Project Advisory Committee

• WA State Infant/Toddler Initiative Advisory Committee

• Healthy Child Care Washington

• Thrive by Five WA Advancing Racial Equity Committee

• …and more than 20 other committees and organizations
   

Elizabeth is the parent of two daughters who graduated from Tacoma Public Schools, and she volunteered with the Washington-Hoyt and Lowell PTAs.  

Elizabeth's professional resume can be found here.