LANL Foundation names Anna Marie Garcia Vice President of Early Childhood Program
ESPANOLA, NM – April 15, 2020 – The Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) Foundation is pleased to announce the appointment of Anna Marie Garcia to Vice President of the Early Childhood Program. Garcia has served as director of the program since 2016.
Garcia has an extensive career in early childhood education. She has bachelor’s degrees in elementary education and special education, with a master’s in early childhood special education. Her passion for early childhood issues began as a teenager when she worked with special education classes for her 4-H projects. She was disturbed to see special education students relegated to the worst classrooms and excluded from the school milieu.
“I saw the importance of all people being treated equitably,” Garcia said. “I always believed in giving everyone a voice.”
Throughout her career, Garcia has emphasized involving families in any work regarding children. “In our community, families are an integral part of what we do. It’s not just parents, it’s grandparents, it’s aunts,
it’s uncles, it’s godparents,” Garcia said. “That also means that our role is to help families, especially in the early years, learn how to be advocates for their own children so that they have that voice and thatstrength. And that, in turn, will help not only them but their kids to have the skill and confidence they need to be the self-sufficient life-long learners who are engaged in a community.”
As Vice President, Anna Marie’s goal is to scrutinize, in the best way, what the Foundation can do for communities as a continuum from cradle to career. To be influential in ensuring that children, prenatal to age five, can be more ready for kindergarten. Therefore, K – 12 staff can further leverage their work so those kids can be ready to apply for scholarships, becoming life long learners.Garcia is now expanding that vision to encompass all LANL Foundation programs, supporting the Foundation’s mission of inspiring excellence in education and learning in Northern New Mexico.
