Michele Rivest
Michele Rivest works as the Early Childhood Education Coordinator at the Natural Learning Initiative. She holds a Master’s degree in Public Policy and Administration from the University of Colorado, Denver, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology. At NLI, Michele is able to combine her expertise in early childhood education and policy with her love for horticulture, gardening and landscape design.
Michele has extensive experience in early childhood policy and program development. Over the course of her career, she has worked at the national, state and local levels, including:
- Executive Director of the Orange County Partnership for Young Children, the first Smart Start organization in North Carolina and has worked at the national, state, and local levels providing technical assistance on early childhood issues.
- Past President of the N.C. Child Care Coalition, a statewide, grass-roots advocacy effort for better early childhood policy for young children.
- Vice-President for Programs at the N.C. Child Advocacy Institute in Raleigh, NC where she was responsible for policy and program activities. While at the Institute, Michele was part of Governor Hunt's transition team on early childhood education which created the Smart Start Initiative, and active with the state legislature in forming policy on child and family issues.
- Director of The Children and Youth Program for the National Conference of State Legislatures, a national organization serving all 50 states, providing policy guidance and technical assistance to various state legislatures on children and family policy and program development.
- Community Organizer, with the Humboldt Child Care Council where she developed model programs in early childhood education and child welfare and worked with rural and urban communities and Native Americans reservations.
- Authored numerous reports on child care, child welfare, and children's policy and has served as a national consultant on these issues.
In addition to her work at NLI, Michele Rivest is also the President of Michele Rivest Consulting, Inc. which specializes in strategic planning and organizational development to increase opportunities for early childhood success. She has worked with states and local organizations to create effective collaborative efforts to enhance child and family services, and organizations.
Michele is passionate about leaving this world a better place for children and families, and believes that early childhood development and education is the key to a child’s success in school and in life.
