Celebration of A Life Well Lived

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A Celebration of a Life Well-Lived

Colleen B. Mendel, T/TAS founder and first Executive Director of our organization, passed away on January 20, 2014 after 40 years of visionary and inspirational leadership within the Head Start and Early Head Start community. While her wisdom and knowledge will be missed, she leaves an extensive legacy of commitment to high quality services for low-income children and families.

The Colleen Mendel Memorial Fund

Bright Prospect, a Park City charity for low-income children with which Colleen was involved has set up the Colleen Mendel Memorial Fund and donations can be made online at http://www.brightprospect.org/how-you-can-help/colleenmendelmemorialfund/. 

Colleen's contributions to Head Start programs and staff were many. She was an active and engaged member of the training and technical assistance community since its inception, and in that capacity,  provided training and technical assistance, offered presentations and developed materials in the areas of human resources, strategic planning, governance, partnerships, succession planning, and risk management. She was an expert in the area of Head Start wage comparability and she created the materials found in the OHS Comparability Tool Kit and completed many studies for HS programs and state/regional associations.

Colleen's wisdom was instrumental in the development of many national HS initiatives and programs, including the original NHSA Quality Assurance Initiative and the first year of OHS' National Center on Program Management and Fiscal Operations. But perhaps most important was the mentoring and support she has offered to HS directors and leaders across the country during their challenging and difficult times. Many of us have benefited from her unique ability to see and weigh all sides of an issue, and from her clear, logical thinking.

We at T/TAS are not only grateful for Colleen's many years of leadership, but to her foresight that lead to our organization's development from a training provider for Kentucky Head Start programs, to a multi-state and regional T/TA center, to our current nationwide entrepreneurial focus. Colleen's creativity led to our becoming a Head Start grantee and Early Head Start delegate and to our providing resource and referral leadership to a nine-county rural service area.