No Small Matter Documentary Screening & Panel Discussion

We’re excited to be hosting a special event and screening for the film No Small Matter, the first feature documentary to explore the most overlooked, underestimated, and powerful force for good in America today: early childhood education.

It will be a thought provoking event with education leaders including Elizabeth Winograd, Senior Program Officer at the Low Income Investment Fund, and some of Wu Yee's own superstar staff! This is your chance to be part of a national movement that highlights the importance of early childhood education.

ABOUT THE FILM

No Small Matter is built from stories of real children, families, and teachers, illustrating the impact of high-quality early childhood experiences. We meet parents who are struggling to do their best for their kids, incredible teachers who model what early childhood classrooms should and could be like, and children learning and developing in real time. These positive, hopeful stories serve as motivational tools in both the film and the No Small Matter campaign: Change is necessary, critical, and attainable if we put our minds to it.

This screening is the first in a two-part series; we hope you'll also join us on November 5 for Resilience: Back to Learning, a Virtual Benefit Featuring Two Piano Journey, where we'll continue the conversation with Laura Fallsgraff, Co-Producer and Campaign Director of No Small Matter, San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Norman Yee, and Bay Area Regional Manager at Common Sense, Jamie Nunez.

About the Panelists:

Monica Walters, Moderator

Monica has an extensive background in advocacy to address early childhood education and development, chronic poverty, domestic violence, health care, and economic equality. As a highly experienced executive leader of nonprofits in Washington and the diverse social services community of San Francisco, Monica brings passion, commitment and more than 20 years of experience serving youth, families and ethnic communities. She is a member of the API (Asian Pacific Islander) Council of San Francisco and the San Francisco Child Care Planning and Advisory Council (CPAC), Co-Chair of the Advocacy Committee for the California Childcare Directors Association (CCDA), and serves on the Steering Committee for the California Coalition for Early Learning (CCEL).

Elizabeth Winograd

For more than twenty years, Elizabeth has served as an advocate, funder, researcher, and program developer in quality early child care and education in the Northern California non-profit sector. Elizabeth provides expertise on facilities development and financing. She has written and updated reports that support the economic impact of early care and education and child care facility planning and development. She has also contributed to numerous publications specific to early child education and on topics such as land use, business technical assistance and co-location of child care within housing.

Currently, Elizabeth is the Senior Program Officer for Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF)’s early care and education division, where she has administered grants and supported child care providers through one-on-one technical assistance, group trainings, and workshops.

Cheryl Horney

Cheryl is the Child Development Program Director at Wu Yee Children’s Services and has been in the Early Childhood field for nearly fifteen years as a teacher, coach, before her current position. Cheryl has worked at non-profits her entire career starting as a teacher for children without homes in Boston, MA. Cheryl has a MA in Early Childhood Education from San Francisco State University. She serves on the Board of Directors of the CA Association for the Education of Young Children and on the Board of Directors of the San Francisco Women’s Building. She volunteers with Big Brothers and Big Sisters of the Bay Area.

Mechele Pruitt

Mechele Pruitt has worked in the field of Child Development and served families for three decades, primarily in the San Francisco Bay Area. She previously owned Early Childhood schools in Silicon Valley employing the Reggio Emilia philosophy and also advocated for children in the Autism Spectrum and students with learning disabilities for SFUSD. She has developed and implemented After School Arts programs both in Memphis, Tennessee and San Francisco, serving elementary school age children. Her latest work as a parent educator and coach as the Director of Parents Place in San Francisco, included managing a Preschool Preview night fundraiser, outreach to local public and private schools for parent education /community talks and child advocacy. Mechele brings a passion for the rights of all children and the disadvantaged.