DiCola Assumes Expanded Leadership Role

New focus spans Cradle to Career

Laura DiCola is now the Director of Strategic Initiatives and Policy at Summit Education Initiative, where she will focus on building and sustaining efforts across the cradle to career continuum. She will also play an active role in local, state, and national policy issues around early childhood development, K-12 schooling, and postsecondary education. Ms. DiCola brings a wealth of experience and insight into this expanded role, having advanced our work in early childhood development and kindergarten readiness at Summit Education Initiative since 2016. 

As SEI’s Early Childhood Strategy Leader for the past four years, Ms. DiCola established, expanded, and supported efforts aimed at meeting the needs of our community’s youngest learners.  She developed the CLASS Act Scholars program, a unique and impactful year-long professional development and networking program for early childhood educators. She also expanded and sustained readiness coalitions across Summit County in partnership with school principals and community leaders, building capacity, and creating an infrastructure for grass-roots, local actions to increase kindergarten readiness.

Ms. DiCola has been instrumental in establishing and advancing cross-sector partnerships with education, health care, government, non-profit, philanthropic, and corporate leaders who have a vested interest in early childhood development. She has also amplified our voice as a leader in early childhood policy as a member of the Advisory Board for Groundwork Ohio, a non-partisan early childhood policy and advocacy organization.  In this new role, Ms. DiCola will expand her focus to strategic partnerships and policy work across the cradle to career continuum.

Prior to joining SEI and the nonprofit world, Ms. DiCola excelled in the field of corporate tax law, supporting clients and speaking at national conferences. She was a primary or contributing author on more than fifty articles, book chapters, and books.  Beyond her work at SEI, Ms. DiCola is the Vice President of Akron Community Foundation’s Women’s Endowment Fund Advisory Board, the Akron Children’s Hospital Ethics Committee, and is on the Board of Directors for Girls on the Run of Northeast Ohio.