On April 10, 2015, the early learning world lost one of its
great champions of high quality care for our very youngest learners and their
families. Jo Ader passed away last month from complications of kidney disease
but left behind her legacy as an amazingly respectful and responsive
infant/toddler educator in our Early Head Start program at the Washington
Corrections Center for Women.
Jo began her tenure with Puget Sound ESD Early Head Start 15
years ago, shortly after we began our collaboration with the Department of
Corrections to support a Residential Parenting Program within the fences of WCCW.
From the beginning, she was passionate about her work with the women and
children participating in the RPP. She believed strongly that every human
deserves to be treated with respect and dignity, including babies and women
serving felony sentences. Working within the corrections culture, convincing
others of this was often an uphill climb. However, this didn’t stop her from
being a persistent voice, whenever needed, for those unable, or without the
power, to advocate for themselves.
Jo built strong, trusting relationships with not only the
infants and toddlers in her care but with their mothers as well. She was intentional about developing these
connections as she understood how critical a mother’s well-being is to her
baby’s healthy development. Most of the mothers in our program have experienced
significant, and often chronic, trauma. Jo’s interactions with the mothers were
sensitive, non-judgmental and supportive. She instilled in the mothers the
importance of making informed decisions about their own lives and the lives of
their children. Jo highly valued information and knowledge. She was an avid
reader and researcher of anything related to early development and learning and
she generously shared what she learned with the mothers.
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| Jo Ader working with children. |
Jo was also a strong advocate for early education getting
the respect it deserved. She was well-known at WCCW for her gentle reminders
that we were not “babysitters” or a “daycare” and she insisted we be referred
to as “early educators” and our center as the Child Development Center. Jo mentored,
coached and encouraged a number of colleagues over the years. She believed that
knowledgeable, skilled and dedicated
early educators could truly make a difference in a child’s life and she
had high expectations of herself and her early learning colleagues. Two of Jo’s
proudest accomplishments were the development of a collaborative staffing model
for our program and the creation of a Facebook group called “Circle Time” for
early educators to share ideas, strategies and reflections.
Jo will be deeply missed by the many children, families and
colleagues whose lives she touched.
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