Leadership

Ginger Ward is the founder and chief executive officer of Southwest Human Development. Founded in 1981 with a staff of only six serving 175 children and families, Southwest Human Development has grown to be Arizona’s largest nonprofit dedicated to early childhood development with 900 employees, serving 140,000 children, families and professionals each year.

Under Ginger’s direction, the agency has established a national reputation for leadership and high-quality services in the early childhood fields of education, mental health, family support, disabilities services and professional development. Ginger has made a significant contribution to the early childhood field in Arizona by ensuring that the latest best practices and research are used to create programs and educate parents, professionals and policymakers about the importance of children’s earliest years to later development.

Ginger sits on a variety of boards and committees charged with forming policy and improving services for children and families, including the Alliance for Early Learning Success, Arizona State Alliance Team, Child Care Advisory Committee-State of Arizona, Educare Arizona Board of Directors, Educare Governance Council, Governor’s Council on Child Safety and Family Empowerment Prevention Subcommittee, Healthy Families Steering Committee, Maricopa County Family Support Alliance Steering Committee and the ZERO TO THREE National Board of Directors.

Jake Adams is the Chief Development Officer for Southwest Human Development where he oversees agency fundraising, community outreach, volunteer engagement, special events and marketing communications.

Jake has more than 15 years of experience in fundraising and business development in a variety of industries including politics, nonprofit, telecom, construction and renewable energy. Jake has also managed political campaigns, most recently for Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton.

Jake grew up in Pennsylvania before moving to Washington, D.C. in 2002, where he fundraised for U.S. Senate candidates from Delaware and Alaska. In 2005, a political campaign brought Jake to Arizona and he later worked in the construction industry as the lead salesman for his company’s renewable energy division. Jake then returned to politics in 2010.

Jake received an undergraduate degree in economics from West Chester University of Pennsylvania and completed an MBA at the University of Arizona.

He enjoys photography, fishing, woodworking and spending time with his family.

Doug Albrecht is a licensed clinical psychologist who serves as the clinical director for Southwest Human Development’s Good Fit Counseling Center. He provides treatment, assessment, consultation and supervision services for infants, toddlers and their families.

Doug received his training at the Fuller Graduate School of Psychology in Pasadena, Calif. He has provided training to professionals and graduate students on the treatment of children who have experienced multiple forms of trauma, including physical and sexual abuse and domestic violence.

He has experience working with children in both California and Arizona who have been physically and sexually abused. Doug has additional expertise in infant/toddler mental health, parent-child relationships, play therapy, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and attachment and bonding.

Kecia Blackson joined Southwest Human Development’s senior leadership team with more than 25 years of broad experience in child welfare and juvenile criminal justice. She worked for just a short time in direct service prior to moving quickly into various program support and leadership roles. Before joining Southwest Human Development, Kecia last served as the executive director of the Delaware Child Placement Review Board where she provided administrative oversight to the state’s foster care system. No matter the position, Kecia has remained true to her passion of child development. She has been an adjunct instructor for local universities and community colleges, teaching child development and a plethora of other first and second year courses in psychology.

Kecia also carried her passion for working with children and families into the private practice of law. She has been a licensed attorney for two decades. As a family law practitioner, she assisted clients divorce litigation and what she likes to call “common sense” custody agreements in which she assisted parents in reaching agreements tailored with the developmental needs of the children in the forefront. Kecia also practiced immigration law, focusing on family-based visas as well as some asylum litigation.

Kecia sees herself as a visionary leader who will use her influence, knowledge and skills to positively impact desired outcomes, including social justice and basic human needs for children and families.

Annette Findlay is the Chief Information Officer for Southwest Human Development. In this role, she leads all Information Technology development, support, operations and engineering functions for the agency.

With more than 30 years of experience, Annette has been an IT executive in several industries including banking, financial services, insurance, health care and residential construction. She has earned an AAS and BS degree from the University of Akron and an MBA from the University of Phoenix.

Annette was raised in a small town in northeastern Ohio and moved to Michigan early in her career. After taking a job that required her to commute to Phoenix, Annette decided to relocate to the Valley in 2008.

She is an avid Red Wings fan, plays tennis, volunteers with Halo Rescue, enjoys music and owns a classic British roadster.

Dr. Trudi Murch is director of Services for Children with Disabilities at Southwest Human Development, a community-based human service agency in the Greater Phoenix area. Department programs include: Head Start disabilities services, Children’s Developmental Center (Early Intervention), Inclusion Program, Nurse-Family Partnership, Newborn Intensive Care Program, Smooth Way Home, Feeding Services and Assistive Technology Training and Resource Center.

Trudi has had extensive experience in designing and delivering training programs to Head Start personnel, school district teams and early intervention programs in the areas of inclusion, early intervention program design, and reflective supervision. She recently co-authored a text: Reflective Supervision and Leadership in Infant and Early Childhood Programs, published by the ZERO TO THREE Press. She and her colleague, Mary Claire Heffron have produced a set of video vignettes, along with a training manual, entitled: Finding the Words, Finding the Ways: Exploring Reflective Supervision and Facilitation.

Trudi has been at Southwest Human Development for more than 25 years. Prior to joining the agency, she was a practicing speech-language pathologist at Good Samaritan Hospital/Phoenix Children’s Hospital and Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Boston. She received her Ph.D. in speech-language pathology from the University of Pittsburgh.

Jeanette Ramos is the Chief Financial Officer for Southwest Human Development where she oversees the agency’s financial management functions, including overseeing the agency and program budgets, general accounting, accounts receivable/payable, financial reporting, insurance, retirement plans and tax management. She is also responsible for providing strategic leadership for the agency by working with the executive management team and Board of Directors.

Jeanette grew up in Cherry Hill, N.J. She received her Bachelor of Science in accounting from La Salle University in Philadelphia and is a licensed CPA in both Arizona and Pennsylvania. Her first job after college exposed her to nonprofits and her passion for nonprofits grew stronger each year. Jeanette has more than 25 years of experience serving nonprofits.

In 2013, Jeanette’s family decided to move to Arizona where she joined CliftonLarsonAllen LLP, a professional services firm and the eighth largest accounting firm in the U.S., as an audit manager in the nonprofits sector. She rose up through management and after three years became a signing director serving nonprofit clients locally and nationally.

In 2018, with her passion for nonprofits now even stronger, she knew she needed to be a part of nonprofit organization that aligned with her passion for helping children. In April 2019, she was fortunate to be chosen as the Chief Financial Officer at Southwest Human Development.

Jeanette lives in Scottsdale with her husband, Phil, and their two children, Christian and Juliette. She loves camping in the family camper, hiking and watching her children participate in sports. She is also a diehard Philly sports teams fan.

Alison Steier, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist and vice president of mental health services at Southwest Human Development. She is director of Southwest’s Harris Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Training Institute, the statewide toll-free Birth to Five Helpline and its “Fussy Baby” home visiting service as well as Arizona’s system of early childhood mental health consultation, known as Smart Support.

Dr. Steier earned her doctoral degree from George Mason University. She received advanced training in psychotherapy from Georgetown University, completed a pre-doctoral fellowship in clinical psychology at Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital and was a visiting fellow at Boston’s Children’s Hospital. She holds a fellowship in infant mental health from Louisiana State University Medical Center and a postdoctoral degree in infant mental health from Tulane University Medical Center.

Dr. Steier is the founder and co-chair of The RAINE Group, a think tank comprised of national experts which works to advance practice, policy and research in the specialty of early childhood mental health consultation. She is a national trainer for the FAN Approach (Facilitating Attuned Interactions) and the Diversity-Informed Tenets for Work with Infants, Children and Families. She is a frequent presenter on topics related to infant mental health, both nationally and internationally, and has published in the areas of early childhood mental health consultation and young children’s attachments to special inanimate objects (“transitional objects”).

Alan Taylor has been with Southwest Human Development for more than 25 years. His areas of experience and expertise include design, delivery and evaluation of training programs for a wide range of adult learners, early childhood leadership development, program design, administration and supervision.

Alan has been responsible for contracts with numerous multi-state and regional training programs designed to deliver training and technical assistance to Head Start and early education programs throughout the western United States. Other programs within his department include services that support young children’s early language and literacy development, provide a wide range of training and technical expertise to child care programs, and support for Quality First, Arizona’s Quality Improvement and Rating System.

Alan has a long-term commitment to helping parents learn the importance of reading to their children. He recognizes the critical importance of building leadership skills in the nonprofit sector in general, and early care and education in particular. Alan works with the American Express Leadership Academy and, as a member of the National Association for the Education of Young Children, Alan was actively involved in a systems change project in Eastern and Central Europe that assisted in the redesign of early childhood education systems.

Mindy Zapata has worked for Head Start and in the early childhood education field for more than 30 years. From holding leadership positions to providing direct services to children and families, Mindy’s vast range of experiences have provided her with valuable insight into translating regulations and applying them to real-life applications.

Mindy has directed both Head Start and Early Head Start programs. As director of Head Start, Mindy’s vision led to the opening of the first Early Head Start program located in a juvenile detention facility. This program received national recognition and has been the model for similar programs throughout the United States.

Mindy is a member of the Head Start Association Board of Directors and is an adjunct faculty for Maricopa County Community College District in the areas of early childhood development and family studies. Mindy is a certified Head Start program monitoring reviewer and regional Head Start grant application reviewer.