Kimberlee is a respected leader in the Early Childhood Education field. She has owned and operated a child care center in Chicago’s South Loop community for the past 21 years and is an advocate for play based learning and developing teacher leaders who are “Educational Entrepreneurs.” She is familiar with the Illinois Gateways to Opportunity professional development system and was a faculty co-lead on the Prior Learning Assessment (PLA)/Mursion pilot earlier this year. She has an M.A.T. in Early Childhood Education, Curriculum, and Instruction from Howard University and is working on her Ed.D at NLU with an emphasis on Advocacy. Kimberlee is a member of several preschool owners associations, and a graduate of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Cohort. Kimberlee actively participates with the Women’s Business Development Center as a conference speaker and has mentored many aspiring women business owners. She participates in the Goldman Sachs One Million Black Women Initiative and was a thought partner and primary contributor to the Goldman Sachs 10KSB Child Care task force, which produced From Pandemic to Prosperity Report with the Bipartisan Policy Center.

She has been featured in Crain’s Chicago Business, Black Enterprise Magazine, The Chicago Tribune and Ebony Magazine to name a few. She’s also been a guest on NBC, and WCIU as an early childhood thought leader.

She served on Mayor Emanuel’s Minimum Wage Increase Task Force, which met with then Vice President Joseph Biden to advocate for wage increases locally and nationally.

Kimberlee is passionate about developing business leaders and engaging and equipping parents to support their child’s development. She counts being the Mommy of 1 year old Elijah as her greatest accomplishment and joy thus far!