Senior Associate; Missoula, MT

Brings education policy and systems experience to support partners through policy development, facilitation, communication, and strategy.

Siri primarily supports engagements with organizations seeking to design and implement healthy early care and education systems. She has over 15 years of experience in non-profit, state government and consulting roles, providing policy research and policy development, advocacy, strategic planning, and facilitation to design policies that advance equity for students and families. 

Siri brings expertise in policy, governance systems, community engagement, and strategic communications. Key contributions from her prior work and as part of the Afton team include:

• Supporting planning and development of a new grant program to invest in the child care workforce, including facilitating meaningful engagement of center and home-based providers.
• Conducting policy research and publishing briefs on the early childhood workforce and early childhood governance models to serve as a resource for state policymakers and early learning stakeholders.
• Designing and facilitating collaborative meetings of education leaders, subject matter experts and other stakeholders to address challenges facing early learning, K-12 and postsecondary education policymakers within and across states.
• Leading the program design, legislative advocacy strategy, and successful implementation of a statewide pilot preschool program.
• Facilitating collaborative state teams to scale strategies with proven education, development and health outcomes.
• Developing and implementing strategic policy agendas, leading to funding and policy changes at the state level.

Prior to joining the Afton team, Siri was senior policy director at Education Commission of the States and also served as education policy advisor to Montana Governor Steve Bullock. Siri earned a bachelor’s in political science from the University of Montana. In her free time, Siri enjoys traveling near and far, attempting to cook, and spending time outdoors with her toddler and nine-year-old rescue dog.