Tom Layman
(He/Him)
Senior Fellow
Tom began his career in Head Start and school-age child care. He worked for twenty-one years as Executive Director of a not-for-profit child care center where he started Chicago’s first staffed family child care network. Subsequently, he served as Executive Director of the Chicago Metropolitan Association for Education of Young Children and as Vice President for Program Development at Illinois Action for Children. In that role, he developed state Preschool for All/child care collaboration programs, a large Head Start program, an Early Reading First initiative, and Race to the Top–Early Learning Challenge Grant projects. He is especially interested in child care quality and served most recently as Quality Recognition and Improvement System (ExceleRate Illinois) Policy Director in the Governor’s Office of Early Childhood Development. Layman earned a Master’s degree in Early Childhood Leadership and Advocacy from National-Louis University.
Tom Layman
Senior Fellow
Tom began his career in Head Start and school-age child care. He worked for twenty-one years as Executive Director of a not-for-profit child care center where he started Chicago’s first staffed family child care network. Subsequently, he served as Executive Director of the Chicago Metropolitan Association for Education of Young Children and as Vice President for Program Development at Illinois Action for Children. In that role, he developed state Preschool for All/child care collaboration programs, a large Head Start program, an Early Reading First initiative, and Race to the Top–Early Learning Challenge Grant projects. He is especially interested in child care quality and served most recently as Quality Recognition and Improvement System (ExceleRate Illinois) Policy Director in the Governor’s Office of Early Childhood Development. Layman earned a Master’s degree in Early Childhood Leadership and Advocacy from National-Louis University.