Maurice Sykes

Maurice Sykes

Maurice Sykes, author of “Doing the Right Thing for Children: Eight Qualities of Leadership”, is the Executive Director of the Early Childhood Leadership Institute at the university of the District of Columbia’s National Center for Urban Education. He has spent his career advancing high-quality early educational reform, teacher professional development, advancement and compensation. Maurice formerly served as deputy superintendent and director of early childhood programs for the District of Columbia Public School System. He advised the US Department of Education on policy and programs related to urban school improvement and served as a National Educational Policy Fellow at the Institute for Educational Leadership and subsequently coordinated the DC Fellows Program for midcareer leaders. Sykes was profiled as an Early Childhood Champion in a national study conducted by the National Association of State Boards of Education in 1997 and he was elected to the governing board of the National Association for the Education of Young Children in 1999. Maurice has written for numerous publications and has traveled nationwide inspiring and challenging schools and communities to do the right thing for children.