In the fall of 2019, Lanette Dumas became Executive Director of the National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC), bringing new energy and decades of experience in family child care (FCC) to the role. A longtime NAFCC member, Lanette ran a family child care home in New Orleans for years before taking on multiple roles with Agenda for Children, the regional child care resource and referral agency and leading statewide child advocacy organization. During her decade there, Lanette served as a Parent Referral Specialist, Director of Training, and Director of Early Care and Education. While at Agenda for Children, she spearheaded the drafting, passage and implementation of the system changing Louisiana legislation (SB 701) to improve the care of children in FCC homes, requiring publicly funded in-home providers to receive training.
She also served in an advisory capacity for the Standard for Programs Serving Four Year-Olds and the Study on the Economic Impact of Child Care in Louisiana and sat on the steering committee for the creation of Quality Start1, the Greater New Orleans Rebuild Child Care Collaborative and the Licensing Family Child Care Feasibility Study. As an independent consultant, she has led the design, assessment, and quality improvement efforts for a variety of programs focused on children, youth, and families. As someone who has worked in the field for nearly three decades, she understands the challenges facing FCC professionals, knows how to engage in effective policy advocacy, and has the vision and management experience to showcase home-based early care and education for the next decade.
Lanette recently relocated to the Washington, D.C., area from New Orleans, Louisiana. She is a mother of five children who live around the country working in various fields.