Our Team
Ingrid Mezquita, Executive Director
As Director of the Office of Early Care and Education (OECE), Ingrid’s aim is to advance policy in San Francisco’s early childhood system by focusing on equity and systems change to remove barriers for children farthest from opportunity. Prior to joining OECE, Ingrid’s work as the Executive Director of First 5 San Francisco included partnering with other county departments to identify strategies and best practices to disrupt racially inequitable early childhood programming and eliminate disparate outcomes.
For over 25 years, Ingrid has contributed to the City’s nonprofit and public sector in various capacities, including strategist, developer, director, adviser, consultant and board member. Ingrid has developed and managed multiple children and family services programs, including implementing Preschool for All, San Francisco’s universal preschool system to ensure children have access to high-quality preschool.
Ingrid is a native of San Francisco’s Mission community and a child of Salvadoran immigrants. Ingrid holds a Master of Business Administration from the Haas School of Business at University of California, Berkeley. In her spare time, she enjoys time with family, especially her young granddaughters.
Maya Castleman, Senior Administrative Analyst
Maya Castleman serves as a Senior Administrative Analyst overseeing strategic initiatives and communications policy. Prior to her current role, Maya served as Assistant to OECE’s Director. She has a background in office administration and administrative support roles as well as extensive experience in early childhood and youth music education.
Maya is a born-and-raised San Franciscan and University of San Francisco graduate with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a Master’s degree in Public Administration.
Nathaniel Cleveland, Principal Human Resources Analyst
Nathaniel Cleveland manages Human Resources for the Department of Early Childhood. Prior to joining DEC, Nathanial served in multiple roles with the City and County’s Department of Human Resources including Operations Supervisor, overseeing a staff of clericals responsible for processing new appointments city-wide and Conviction History Supervisor, responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations of the DHR Conviction History Program. In 2019, Nathaniel became a Senior Human Resources Analyst providing HR support for the San Francisco Rent Board, Human Rights Commission, Police Department, Public Library, and Recreation and Parks Department.
Nathaniel was born and raised in Southern California. Prior to serving with the City, Nathaniel worked in training and development in the private sector. Nathaniel graduated from the University of California, Irvine in 2010 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Ecology.
Susanna Cheng, Fiscal Strategies Analyst
Susanna Cheng is the Fiscal Strategies Analyst at the San Francisco Office of Early Care Education (OECE). She has over 18 years of experience in working with child development programs and child care providers in the San Francisco Bay Area. Prior to joining the OECE, Susanna worked with child care providers directly to provide technical assistance on business capacity building and facility development through her employment at Wu Yee Children’s Services and Low Income Investment Fund.
Susanna is multilingual in English, Cantonese and Mandarin. She holds a Master of Public Administration and a Master of Science in Database Development from Golden Gate University.
Denise Corvino, Deputy Director
Denise Corvino joined OECE as Deputy Director in 2017. Denise first entered the Early Childhood Care and Education field as a volunteer for a family child care program in the Richmond District in 1990. Since then, she has enjoyed a multifaceted career that has included being a preschool teacher and serving as a Child Care Training Specialist, Chief of Child Care Licensing, and Head Start Child Development Manager. Her special areas of interest are early childhood environments and leadership development.
Denise holds a master’s degree in Early Care and Education and a bachelor’s degree in Child Development. She is a San Francisco native.
Michael De Leon, Senior Contracts Analyst
Michael De Leon is a Senior Contracts Analyst at OECE. He has been working for the City and County of San Francisco in various departments since 2014. Michael started his public service career with San Francisco’s Department of Public Health. He specializes in contract management and is responsible for executing contract agreements.
Michael has a Master of Public Administration from the University of San Francisco and a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from the University of Washington.
Graham Dobson, Senior Policy Analyst
Graham has served in his role supporting ECE policy at OECE since 2012. Prior to that he was the Coordinator of the San Francisco Child Care Planning and Advisory Council (CPAC), and served as a teacher, assistant director, program director and finally administrative coordinator at the Tenderloin Child Care Center (now known as Compass Children’s Center). Before relocating permanently to San Francisco in 1990, he worked as a classroom teacher in preschool classrooms and nursery schools in London for 6 years.
Graham completed a Master of Arts in Education at Mills College as part of the Leadership Program in Early Childhood, and holds a Bachelor of Education (Honors) degree.
Jason Holthe, Senior Fiscal Analyst
Jason Holthe is a Senior Fiscal Analyst with the San Francisco Office of Early Care & Education (OECE) and has worked with OECE and the San Francisco Human Services Agency on Early Care & Education policy and planning since 2005. Jason began his career in social welfare working with severely emotionally disturbed (SED) children at Saint Vincent’s School for Boys, a residential youth treatment home.
He received a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from San Francisco State University.
Jenny Lam, Director of Policy and Strategic Partnerships
Jenny Lam is an experienced education leader and community advocate. She previously served as Education Advisor to Mayor London Breed and has served on the San Francisco Board of Education since 2019. Prior to joining the City and County of San Francisco, Jenny was State Engagement Manager at the national organization, Education Superhighway– bringing affordable high speed internet and technology infrastructure to public schools across the country. She has also served in a number of executive leadership positions with nonprofit organizations, including Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA) in San Francisco where she led education initiatives and worked to expand civil and political rights for immigrant youth and families.
Bailey Li, Management Assistant
Bailey Li joined OECE as a Management Assistant in April 2019. Prior to joining OECE, Bailey served as the Assistant to the Deputy Director of Financial Management and Administration of SF Public Works and the Junior Management Assistant to San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD)’s Family Partnership and Empowerment Office.
Bailey was born and raised in San Francisco where she volunteered with the Community Youth Center (CYC)’s Peer Youth and Empowerment Program (PYEP) throughout high school. Bailey graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from University of California, Santa Cruz, where she interned with the Santa Cruz Chamber of Commerce to provide resources to the community and promote economic vitality.
Susan Lu, Program Quality Officer
Susan Lu provides quality support to San Francisco’s early care and education programs. She previously served as the HSA Drop-in Child Care Supervisor and before that as Management Assistant to OECE’s Executive Director. Prior to joining OECE, Susan worked for Head Start programs in Fresno and San Francisco for more than 10 years. During her experience with Head Start, Susan enjoyed working with the children from 0-5 and guiding low-income families in finding affordable housing, jobs, and training programs.
Susan is trilingual in English, Cantonese, and Mandarin. Susan holds a Master of Arts in Leadership of Early Childhood Education and a Bachelor of Science in Child Development. While she was earning her degrees, she worked for different non-profit agencies, including the Jumpstart program and the Grandreader & Books program.
Carlo Manaois, Budget & Contracts Liaison
Carlo Manaois joined OECE as the Budget and Contracts Liaison in 2017. He previously served in the San Francisco Mayor’s Budget Office of Public Policy and Finance as a fiscal and policy analyst. His diverse public service background also includes teaching English for four years in Japanese primary and secondary schools as a participant of the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program and serving as a volunteer teacher aboard the Peace Boat, a Japanese non-governmental organization that raises awareness and builds connections internationally among groups that work for peace, human rights, environmental protection, and sustainable development.
Carlo has a Master of Public Administration from the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington. During his time in graduate school, he worked on environmental and sustainability issues in King County. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Missouri, St. Louis.
Licette Montejano, CARES 2.0 Coordinator
Licette Montejano joined the San Francisco Office of Early Care and Education as the Coordinator for the Child Care Planning and Advisory Council (CPAC) in November 2018. In Fall 2019, OECE launched the CARES 2.0 educator stipend program and in 2020, Licette was charged with leading and coordinating this program. Prior to joining OECE Licette had extensive early childhood education and nonprofit leadership experience. She worked with children and families as a direct provider for eight years and has first-hand knowledge of the complexities of operations, management, and delivery of state-subsidized programming for low-income communities, as well as the assessment and evaluations of such programming. Licette has also held other roles within higher education non-profit work in supporting the early education workforce with degree attainment.
Licette holds a Bachelor of Arts in Child and Adolescent Development and a Master of Public Administration, both from San Francisco State University.
Chacy (Shihua) Ou, Data & Evaluation Analyst
Chacy joined OECE as a Data and Evaluation Analyst in 2018, where she manages the Early Learning SF waitlist. Prior to joining OECE, Chacy worked in the Children’s Council of San Francisco’s SF3C department as a data analyst for almost 9 years, working with the previous waitlist in SF3C.
Chacy holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Davis.
Brenda Taylor, Senior Financial Analyst
Brenda Taylor brings deep experience directing financial affairs and srategic planning as well as expertise in development and implementation of major policy initiatives at the federal, state, and local level. Prior to joining the City & County of San Francisco, Brenda Taylor led large scale transformational initiatives for government leaders and fortune 500 executives with McKinsey & Company. Subsequently she conducted complex analyses and led strategic projects for Alameda Health System, ultimately becoming the Executive Director of the aligned Medical Group she developed and incorporated. Brenda graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University with a degree in Cognitive Neuroscience and received her MBA at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in Finance and Healthcare. In 2004, Brenda was an Olympic finalist in the 400m hurdles in Athens.
Tony Tyson, Fiscal Strategies Manager
Tony Tyson is the Fiscal Strategies Manager at OECE. Tony began his career facilitating environmental and experiential education programs for low-income urban youth. This experience sparked his passion for improving the lives of children, youth and families and led to a career providing leadership at a variety of non-profit organizations. Prior to joining OECE, Tony provided leadership for all child and youth development programs ages birth-12 years old at Telegraph Hill Neighborhood Center (TEL HI). This included work to improve program quality and increase funding, which allowed the team to serve twice as many low-income children who did not previously have access to high quality early childhood education programs.
Tony holds a bachelor’s degree in Education from Bowling Green State University.
Wei-min Wang, Data, Policy, and Impact Manager
Wei-min joined OECE in 2020. He has worked in early education research, evaluation, and policy for more than 15 years. His background is in education and urban policy and includes experience in federal, state, and local governments and the philanthropic sector. Outside of work, Wei-min can be seen cycling around the city and imploring his two children (in Mandarin) not to fight so much.
Armando Zapote, Fiscal Strategies Analyst
Armando joined the San Francisco Office of Early Care and Education in 2013. He works on the C-WAGES program administration, including legislative and data analysis of early care and education workforce-related issues. Armando also supervises a group of Child Care Specialists that serve families and children at the Human Services Agency Child Care Drop-in Rooms. Previously, Armando worked with the Low Income Investment Fund in San Francisco, gaining experience with child care facilities grants. He also successfully managed the largest child care subsidy-voucher programs for nearly twenty years.
Originally from Mexico City, Armando has an education background in elementary education, human development, and conflict management. He has successfully developed and implemented cultural competence, management best practices, and conflict management programs, and has conducted presentations on these topics at local, state and national conferences.