Afton Partners

Kristen Garcia (she/her/ella) is an Early Care and Education (ECE) Policy Associate at Afton Partners where she supports the ECE team in various policy initiatives. Her experience in the sector started in her previous role at Illinois Action for Children as a Program Coordinator before being promoted to Project Manager for the Community Systems Statewide Supports (CS3) team, which provides training and technical assistance to early childhood collaborations across Illinois. There, Kristen held an administrative role and managed several projects to serve collaborations’ capacity on racial equity and community systems development including an annual conference of over 500 participants. She also led an Advisory Committee that shifted decision-making power to early childhood education collaboration leaders, parents, and community members to inform conference planning.

Kristen moved to Chicago as an adolescent and currently lives in McKinley Park with her partner and English bulldog, Sigmund. She has a BA in psychology from Dominican University. Kristen is currently a 2023 fellow at Chicago United for Equity where she is conducting an organizational equity project that she will execute at Afton. In her free time, she enjoys going on long walks, being in nature, and painting.