Michelle Kang serves as the Chief Executive Officer for the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), a global association advocating for high quality early learning for all children. Prior to becoming CEO, Michelle served as NAEYC’s inaugural Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer, in which she oversaw the strategy and daily operations for Membership, Early Learning Program Accreditation, Publications, Conference, Market Solutions and Global Engagement. During her tenure, the organization dramatically pivoted to serve the field through the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, including successfully conducting virtual conferences serving thousands of educators, the first-ever Symposium on Developmentally Appropriate Practice and a virtual Professional Learning Institute that delivered more than 235,000 certificates of professional development. She has guided the substantial system adjustments necessary to support child care and preschools attaining and maintaining accreditation through the pandemic and shepherded the development and launch of the fourth edition of NAEYC’s Developmentally Appropriate Practice book, a critical text used widely as the basis for quality early learning.
Prior to joining NAEYC, she served in leadership roles at Bright Horizons, an international provider of early education, most recently as Vice President of Strategic Initiatives and Operational Strategy. Her 16-year tenure at Bright Horizons included building partnerships with leading global employers to develop and implement dependent care supports–child care, back-up care, and educational advising services. In building these partnerships, she gained a deep appreciation for the life-changing work that early educators do every day.
Drawing on her experiences as the daughter of Korean immigrants, Michelle is committed to creating belonging within organizations and developing inclusive leadership and mentoring opportunities. Also an ardent supporter of higher education student development, Michelle has served as a Resident Tutor and Scholar at Harvard University and as a member of the Student Engagement and Leadership Advisory Board for The College of William & Mary.
Michelle holds a Bachelor’s degree from the College of William and Mary, a Masters of Education in Leadership and Policy from the University of Virginia and a Masters of Science in Industrial Relations and Human Resource Management from Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford (UK). She and her husband live in Maryland with their three children.