Sarah Stoliker -- President
Sarah, the youngest of three, was born and raised in a small military town in central Illinois. Her father, a small animal veterinarian, and her mother, a graduate of the University of Illinois in Child Development, raised their family in a small but culturally diverse community. To this day she credits many of her happy and enriching childhood experiences to her mother’s knowledge of child development and application in the home and Sarah’s early years.
Sarah graduated from Illinois State University with a degree in Fashion Design and Merchandising. After college, she moved to Chicago and worked many years in retail management and the wholesale apparel industry before moving to corporate sales and management.
She met and married her husband Eric in Chicago, and it was shortly after their son was born Sarah went back to school to study early childhood education. Her early personal experience from her childhood was sparked, and she believed that by combining her knowledge of business with her passion for young children was perfect for a career in childcare!
While going back to school, Sarah nannied for a special-needs child, cared for children in her own home, and also worked in her mother’s center-based program teaching and directing. After several years Sarah and her family purchased land and designed/built a center-based program in the southwest suburbs of Chicago where she is director and owner today. She loves working with parents, children, and teachers every day in her program for the last 11 years.
In 2016, Sarah became a member of the DCFS Advisory Board Council. She sought out the position to bring a voice to the table from those actually working in early childhood education centers. She felt it was necessary to stop heavy, unnecessary regulations being placed on the back of programs and undue burdens on an already struggling system. After serving on the council for over two years, Sarah was discouraged that bureaucrats not working in the childcare trenches were ignoring input and efforts by her and others to improve regulations. As a result, she contacted her state representative to discuss the issues in the childcare industry and mainly the staffing crisis that still plagues childcare today.
In early 2019, she and other like-minded directors and owners of child care centers formed a new, statewide organization (ILDOCC) to give owners and directors direct access to decision-makers of the childcare industry in Springfield. The Illinois Directors/Owners of Childcare Centers would be a strong advocate for the center owners and directors who were being ignored. After all, the childcare field was supposed to help them help parents and children, not provide one roadblock after another.
In 2019, ILDOCC’s first piece of legislation, House Bill 2687, was introduced in the General Assembly to address the teacher staffing crisis and other issues. While it did not pass, House Resolution 416 was unanimously passed that brought legislative attention to the childcare crisis. In 2020, ILDOCC has repeatedly fought and won against unreasonable state mandates during the COVID crisis.