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, and the Maricopa County Family Support Alliance Steering Committee.

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.

Eve DelReal has worked in Head Start and in the early childhood education field for more than 20 years. 

Before joining SWHD in January 2024, Eve served as the Maricopa County Human Services Assistant Director where she led the implementation of the early education division, including the Head Start program with an annual budget of $22 million.

Before that, she held multiple leadership roles in the Head Start and Early Head Start space. Eve currently serves as the President of the Arizona Head Start Association where she provides state-level strategic leadership that has helped to establish a stronger presence and partnerships with the Department of Economic Security, Department of Education, and multiple institutions of higher education and workforce development. Other accomplishments from Eve’s career in public service include opening childcare facilities, developing a shelter for single mothers, and leading the implementation of the Early Head Start Child-Care Partnership program for the county.

Her commitment to public service was recognized numerous times by elected leaders, specifically for her contributions to improve the lives of children and communities, which includes the California State Assembly as Woman of Action for 2010.

Eve is pursuing her doctoral studies in Public Administration and is an advocate for high quality social service programs.

Jessica Brandt, DPT is a licensed physical therapist and the Vice President of Health and Developmental Services. In this position Jessica provides leadership and support to help ensure the success of multiple programs including the Birth to Five Center of Excellence, Smooth Way Home, High Risk Perinatal Program, Nurse Family Partnership, Inclusion, Side by Side, and Head start Disabilities services.

Jessica was born and raised in Arizona.  She received her Bachelors of Science in Health Sciences from the University of Arizona.  She continued her education through AT Still University at the Arizona School of Health Sciences where she earned her Doctorate in Physical Therapy.

Jessica has over 22 years of clinical and management experience providing pediatric physical therapy in multiple settings. Providing her with extensive experiences in how to help support children and their families as they navigate services available throughout the state of Arizona.  Prior to joining Southwest Human Development, Jessica served as the Associate Director of Rehabilitation in the hospital setting where she provided direct leadership to a large, multi-disciplinary acute care team as well as working across departments with leadership to improve the quality and consistency of services throughout the hospital system. Jessica has years of providing early intervention services through AzEIP, including time as a PT on the SWHD AzEIP team.

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.

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.

Otto joined Southwest Human Development as CIO in January 2022. He holds certifications as a certified Healthcare CIO (CHCIO), Certified Digital Health Executive (CDH-E) and Certified Information Security Manager (CISM). Otto oversees every aspect of the agency’s information systems, providing strategic leadership for the agency and managing the team that supports the EMR and enterprise applications from end to end, Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM, Software Development, Azure DevOps, Data Analytics, IT Ops, Cyber Security, and the organization’s Service Desk. Otto also acts as the organization’s Chief Security Officer to ensure compliance with HIPAA, First Things First, Department of Child Safety, and other stakeholders.

Otto has more than 20 years of experience as a senior-level information systems executive and a proven track record for leading critical projects in high-growth environments. He stays current in his constantly evolving field, as an active member of national organization such as ISACA, CHIME, and NIST.

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.