Steph joined EPIC in early 2024 as Chief Impact Officer. She brings to the team a rich mix of organizational leadership, professional services expertise, and dedication to early learning and K-12 education. Steph was a collaborator of EPIC’s since 2019, partnering with EPIC to serve dozens of employers in working through employer-based care feasibility and planning. Steph’s first engagement with employer-based care was partnering with Guild to launch its on-site early care and education center, The Beehive, in downtown Denver during the COVID-19 pandemic. At this time, Steph was leading 5280 Impact Partners where she advised organizational leaders on both strategic and tactical topics,helping them to advance their most important priorities. This included contracting to provide strategic planning support and interim COO services to Clayton Early Learning as Clayton looked to expand its impact and working with The Efshar Project to assess and develop possibilities for shared services across a network of early childhood programs.

Prior to this work, she was a Denver public charter school executive director and spent 6 years as a leader at Bellwether, providing advisory support to education organizations around the country ranging from strategic planning, growth strategy projects, strategic Federal grant application development, and implementation support. Before joining Bellwether in 2013, Steph was the Chief of Staff at Aspire Public Schools. There she also held the role of Director of Growth and Strategy, where she led the development of new schools and facilities. Over the course of her four years at Aspire, the organization grew from 21 to 35 schools. A former Broad Resident and Education Pioneer, Steph has also worked as a consultant for Bain & Company and the Bridgespan Group. Stephanie earned her M.Ed. and MBA at Stanford University and holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia. She lives in Denver with her husband and two daughters.

Alethea has worked in both early education and business for more than 15 years. Her undergraduate studies focused on Business Administration, Early Cognition and Development, and she completed her Masters in Life and Developmental Sciences at CU Denver’s Department of Human Development. She also holds several licensures in Colorado, and continues to pursue opportunities to deepen her experience and knowledge of the field.

Alethea has extensive experience overseeing large educational institutions in both leadership and administrative capacities, working privately and professionally with families, and creating vision, structure and growth in the departments she has led. This has honed both her ability to support the needs and goals of complex projects, and make direct connections to the incredible benefit of the integration of family and business needs.

Her past tenures included work with UCLA, Harvard University, Pixar, Facebook, and Bright Horizons Family Solutions – specifically supporting the needs of children and families – and equipping her with a unique ability to understand and represent the needs and support structures for business owners, educators and families. She is thrilled to continue this work supporting the goals and expanding the influence of EPIC across Colorado and beyond.

Aya’s career began in 2006 as a Peace Corps volunteer in the education program for Madagascar. She then went on to teach in classrooms in Japan and New York City, before settling into the world of education non-profits. She’s worked across a variety of impact areas, including: supporting international aid organizations to re-build schools in post-conflict countries, and developing robotics programs in low-income schools in New York City.  In almost a decade with the College Board, Aya led national initiatives to build equitable pathways for students to access critical opportunities on their path to college and career. Through it all, she’s built a reputation as someone who can tackle big, sticky problems, and get stuff done in service of the communities at the heart of the work.

A native of Walla Walla, Washington, Aya left home to pursue her BA at Occidental College in Los Angeles, and later earned her MA from Teachers College at Columbia University in New York City.  She and her family moved from New York to Colorado to be closer to family in Estes Park and across the west coast. She lives in Denver with her husband, two young children, and her polydactyl cat, Leroy.

Marianne joined EPIC in December of 2019 and on the very same day, she and her family moved into their first mountain home in Bailey, Colorado. Formally, an east coaster, Marianne grew up in Upstate Ny in the Adirondack mountains. After, obtaining a B.S. in Finance at Siena College, she decided to seek out a business career in Washington, DC. After a couple years in the business sector, Marianne followed her heart and switched paths into education. She worked as a paraprofessional, until she found her calling as Lead Teacher, in the Child Development Center at Sidwell Friends. There she learned the value and importance of a child’s most formative years from zero to three, and there she learned of her desire to shout it from the roof tops! While happy with her purpose in life, the mountains were calling her name, except this time it was the Rocky Mountains. She knew she needed to be around like-minded individuals who not only cared about the importance of early care and education but also cared about it from 5,280 feet. She picked up and moved to cap hill in Denver, where she could walk to Warren Village and teach her students and their parents in a full circle operation about how the brain develops, and how important “windows of opportunity” can impact a child’s future success.

Prior to EPIC, Marianne served as a Quality Navigator at Denver’s Early Childhood Council, where she helped over 45 child care providers with business administration, PDIS, and navigating the QRIS system to effectively use QI funding.

Marianne has collectively 10 years’ experience as an Early Childhood Educator and home provider, while she stayed home with her now 6 year old son for his formative years until he was ready for preschool.

When she is not busy maintaining EPIC’s daily operations and supporting EPIC’s President & CEO, advocating for early care and education, she is spending time with her friends and family enjoying the outdoors of colorful Colorado.

Brooke serves as EPIC’s Director of Communications and External Relations. She plays a crucial role in advancing EPIC’s mission and increasing visibility through communications strategy, media relations, social media management, special events and partner engagement.  

Brooke came to EPIC with a rich background in digital marketing, communications and a fervor for mission-driven work. She brings nearly 20 years of B2B, B2C and agency experience in the nonprofit and healthcare sectors, including a decade leading the online storytelling and content strategy for Children’s Hospital Colorado. There she partnered with executives, clinicians, researchers and patient families to market one of the top 10 pediatric hospitals in the country. 

Brooke most recently managed the digital communications and CRM at The American Foundation for the Blind, where she created an omni-channel strategy focused on accessibility for blind users with adaptive devices. By working closely with the blind, low-vision and disability communities, she developed an even greater urgency to advocate for digital inclusion in an increasingly online world.

In her spare time, Brooke enjoys reading, hiking, cheering on the Denver Broncos and seeking out the perfect pizza. She credits her two daughters with igniting her passion to advocate for high-quality childcare, education and healthcare.