Kelly Borchardt, Technical Advisor — Kelly brings a variety of early childhood experiences to her work with WCCIP. She has a BS in elementary education and a WI Registry Level VII.  In her 15 + years in the field, she was an assistant and lead teacher; she was a recruitment specialist at the child care resource and referral agency in Wausau and also worked for CCR & Rs in Stevens Point and Wisconsin Rapids. She teaches the family child care course for NorthCentral Technical College and she is an NAEYC validator. Her areas of expertise are transitions, family communication, SIDS risk reduction, family child care, budgets and Wisconsin Model Early Learning Standards.

Barb Evensen, Technical Advisor, Training and Consulting Services Coordinator  — Barb has an early childhood education degree from UW-Stout, and has done graduate work at Wheelock College and the Merrill-Palmer Institute. She has been with WCCIP for 15 years. She was the Executive Director of a child care program in Ripon for 10 years. She also worked for the Work Place Child Care Clearing House in the Lt. Governor’s office. She has taught various courses at the Technical College and continues to update and improve the training that she has developed. Her areas of expertise include employer-sponsored child care planning and development, infant and toddler programming and environments, the process of art for children and helping teachers focus on literacy. “But my passion is curriculum,” says Barb, “helping people understand how to define their curriculum and making a commitment to using it effectively is a powerful move toward quality improvement.” She also believes in helping teachers learn to advocate for themselves as professionals “because they know best what they need. ”Barb recently became the Training and Consulting Coordinator for WCCIP.  She is committed to making training events for early care and education programs “special events” customized to meet their unique needs. 

Sandy Garski, Technical Advisor — Sandy has worked for WCCIP since 1990. Prior to that she was an early childhood administrator and preschool teacher in the Madison area for 17 years. The program she administered was the first NAEYC accredited program in Wisconsin. She now enjoys assisting other programs through the process by doing training and consulting on accreditation. She also teaches at MATC in Madison in the Child Development Associate Degree Program.  Her training and consulting areas of expertise include Literacy, Quality Enhancement, Observing & Recording Children’s Behavior, Adult/Child Interactions, Building Positive Family Relationships, Curriculum Development and more.  She has a degree in Preschool/Kindergarten Education from UW-Madison.  Sandy is an approved trainer for the Wisconsin Model Early Learning Standards.

Barb Karlen, Technical Advisor (Pre-Licensing) Coordinator, Technical Advisor — Barb has been in the early childhood field for 28 years, eight years with WCCIP. During that time she has served as a parent/officer of a parent cooperative preschool, a teacher, and a director/administrator of a NAEYC accredited group center. She has a masters degree in Library Science with an emphasis on children’s literature. She is an NAEYC validator. She has attended national seminars with Alice Honig, Magda Gerber and Diane Trister Dodge. She has also trained at Wheelock College’s Infant/Toddler Curriculum intensive. Her areas of expertise are infants and toddlers, family communication, brain development and personnel issues.

Peggy McMahon, Technical Advisor — Peggy lives in Ladysmith and works in far northwestern and northern Wisconsin.  She has a BS in Early Childhood Education from UW-Stout and 25+ years of experience in early care and education (worked for WCCIP since 1992).  She works with group and family child care providers, assisting in the start-up/licensing process in 24 counties. Peggy has a wonderful husband and 4 great kids.  

Jane Ilgen, Executive Director — Jane has been in the early childhood field 30+ years with experiences ranging from classroom teacher, family provider, Head Start and center director for preschool through school-age. She spent 11 years at the Dane County YMCA teaching, directing and overseeing multiple programs serving children birth to school-age. Jane came to WCCIP in 1997 as Assistant Director and School-Age Specialist and in 1999 became the Executive Director. She has a BS in Kindergarten-Primary Education and Art Education. She spends much of her time on statewide early care and education committees advocating for quality services for children and families of Wisconsin.