Sessy Nyman
(She/Her)
Deputy Director
Sessy Nyman is a seasoned nonprofit executive with 25+ years of experience in government and organizational leadership. She has worked in the field of early care and education, maternal & child health, community and stakeholder engagement and early childhood policy for more than 2 decades. She continues to lift-up the needs of young children and working families in her current role as Deputy Director of the Center for Early Learning Funding Equity (CELFE) at Northern Illinois University.
As Deputy Director, Ms. Nyman is a core part of the CELFE leadership team - building on her 20+ years working with child care providers, advocates, child care resource and referral agencies and with families across Illinois to move systems-change forward across the state. As a seasoned state lobbyist, Ms. Nyman understands the intricacies of policy and law, and works to center the needs of children, families and communities in her work while also balancing the real needs of the child care workforce. Ms. Nyman was pivotal in the state’s design and implementation and funding of early childhood collaborations, helped to establish the state’s Early Learning Council (2003), was the lead child care advocate that led to significant investments in access and quality expansion, and was the founder of the state’s Child Day Care Licensing Task Force. While working at the Illinois Department of Human Service (IDHS), Nyman was part of the design and implementation team during the COVID-19 pandemic that designed and oversaw strategies to support the child care workforce.
Ms. Nyman has presented locally and nationally on issues related to child care access and equity, family friend and neighbor care & parent choice, mixed delivery systems in ECEC, grassroots organizing and effective advocacy for ECEC, facilities improvements in child care, and many more topics related to early care and education.
Ms. Nyman holds her undergraduate degree in Government and International Studies and History from the University of South Carolina, and a Master of Science degree in Geosciences from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
Sessy Nyman
Deputy Director
Sessy Nyman is a seasoned nonprofit executive with 25+ years of experience in government and organizational leadership. She has worked in the field of early care and education, maternal & child health, community and stakeholder engagement and early childhood policy for more than 2 decades. She continues to lift-up the needs of young children and working families in her current role as Deputy Director of the Center for Early Learning Funding Equity (CELFE) at Northern Illinois University.
As Deputy Director, Ms. Nyman is a core part of the CELFE leadership team - building on her 20+ years working with child care providers, advocates, child care resource and referral agencies and with families across Illinois to move systems-change forward across the state. As a seasoned state lobbyist, Ms. Nyman understands the intricacies of policy and law, and works to center the needs of children, families and communities in her work while also balancing the real needs of the child care workforce. Ms. Nyman was pivotal in the state’s design and implementation and funding of early childhood collaborations, helped to establish the state’s Early Learning Council (2003), was the lead child care advocate that led to significant investments in access and quality expansion, and was the founder of the state’s Child Day Care Licensing Task Force. While working at the Illinois Department of Human Service (IDHS), Nyman was part of the design and implementation team during the COVID-19 pandemic that designed and oversaw strategies to support the child care workforce.
Ms. Nyman has presented locally and nationally on issues related to child care access and equity, family friend and neighbor care & parent choice, mixed delivery systems in ECEC, grassroots organizing and effective advocacy for ECEC, facilities improvements in child care, and many more topics related to early care and education.
Ms. Nyman holds her undergraduate degree in Government and International Studies and History from the University of South Carolina, and a Master of Science degree in Geosciences from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.