The Educare Arizona Board of Directors is comprised of representative from these organizations:
Denise Higgins - Vice President, Ibis Foundation of Arizona
Irene Jacobs - Early childhood consultant
Jenny Miller - Executive Director, Steve Nash Foundation
Jessie Rasmussen - Vice President, Buffett Early Childhood Fund
Dr. Jeff Smith - Superintendent, Balsz School District
Ginger Ward - CEO, Southwest Human Development
John Whiteman - President, Whiteman Foundation
Denise Higgins, MPH – Vice President, Ibis Foundation of Arizona
Denise Higgins holds a Masters degree in Public Health and has worked in this field for 20 years, having worked as a Public Health Educator for a County Health Department in New York among other roles. In 2006, she became a Co-Trustee of the Ibis Foundation of Arizona, a small family foundation that provides grants with a focus on health and education. She resides in Scottsdale, Arizona, with her husband and three children.
John O. Whiteman – President, Whiteman Foundation
In 1963, John O. Whiteman joined Empire Southwest in Arizona and eventually took the reigns from his father, Jack, to become the second-generation CEO. He retired from the company as chairman and CEO in January 2003. John is currently president of the Whiteman Foundation, and speaks extensively around the country on topics related to early childhood education. In addition to his service on the Educare Arizona board of directors, John serves on the boards of numerous corporate and nonprofit entities including the Arizona Museum for Youth, the Morrison Institute for Public Policy, the Phoenix Symphony and the Arizona Community Foundation.
Jenny Miller – Executive Director, Steve Nash Foundation
Jenny has been Executive Director of the Steve Nash Foundation since 2005. Following a clerkship with the U.S. District Court, she served as project attorney to the Alaska Judicial Council, evaluating justice practices in the state, and as staff attorney to First Star in Washington, D.C., developing public policy-based legal strategies for children in dependency and educating congressional members and medical professionals. Her past work on child abuse and neglect, legal rights for and representation of children informs her daily work at the Foundation to support health and education resources for underserved children and to operate sustainably. Raised in Victoria, BC, and Brooklyn, NY, Jenny completed her B.A. at UC Berkeley, and her law degree at the Washington College of Law. She lives in Alaska, where she serves as a Board member to the Alaska Center for the Environment.
Ginger Ward – CEO, Southwest Human Development
Ginger Ward is the founder and CEO of Southwest Human Development. Under Ginger’s direction, Southwest has established a national reputation for leadership and high-quality services in the early childhood fields of education, mental health, family support, disabilities services and training. Ginger has made a significant contribution to the early childhood field in Arizona by ensuring that the latest best practices and research are used to create programs and to educate parents, professionals and policy makers about the importance of children’s earliest years to later development. Ginger sits on a variety of boards and committees charged with forming policy on, and improving services for, children and families.
Jeff Smith, Ed.D. – Superintendent, Balsz School District
Dr. Smith has been a teacher, principal and district administrator for 27 years. He grew up in Arizona and is a graduate of Arizona State University. With a strong commitment to early childhood education, Dr. Smith is an advocate for children and families from backgrounds of poverty and is proud to be a part of the Educare Board. He is married with 3 children and is currently superintendent of the Balsz School District in Phoenix, Arizona.
Jessie Rasmussen- Vice President, Buffett Early Childhood Fund
Jessie’s entire professional career has focused on improving outcomes for children and families. For over 20 years she was an early childhood education teacher and administrator in a variety of environments, including Head Start, the Jewish Community Center, and the Munroe-Meyer Rehabilitation Center in Omaha, Nebraska. She spent the next 20 years in state government, first serving as a Nebraska state Senator for four years and then serving as the state human services director in both Nebraska and Iowa. She served as the Early Childhood Policy Director for the Nebraska Children and Families Foundation where she advocated for good public policy for young children and their families. In this position, Jessie played an instrumental role in the development and successful passage of early childhood legislation in 2006 that established a $60M early childhood endowment funded through a public and private partnership.
Irene Jacobs
Irene Jacobs is a consultant and conducts strategic planning, focus groups, facilitation, policy analysis, consensus building, and synthesis of information into reports. Her clients include the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, University of Arizona and First Things First. Previously, she served as Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano’s Senior Policy Advisor and Director of the Office of Children, Youth & Families. She oversaw allocation of $40 million in grants and supported 17 Boards and Commissions, including the Governor’s Children’s Cabinet and Foundation Roundtable. Irene believes that the optimum time to positively impact a child's success is during the first years of life. As director of the School Readiness Board, she impacted that vision as they guided the Governor’s early education policies and laid a foundation for First Things First, a citizen’s initiative to improve children’s development and health. She serves on the Boards of Educare of Arizona and United Healthcare Children’s Foundation.
