Cynthia Tate
Director of Child Welfare and Cross-systems Collaboration
Build Initiative
Bio:
Cynthia L. Tate, Ph.D. is the Director of Child Welfare and Cross-Systems Collaboration at The BUILD Initiative, a national organization that advances state work on behalf of young children prenatal to five, and their families and communities. She provides consultation and technical assistance to state cross-sector leadership teams and coalitions, working with leaders to improve and expand access to high quality early childhood programs and services, and to promote equitable outcomes for young children and families. Dr. Tate initiated and leads the Early Childhood-Child Welfare Cross Systems Collaboration work at BUILD. This work has produced a publicly available resource collection; two webinar series which has attracted more than 2000 participants; and a Thought Leader’s council which advises BUILD on priorities for this work moving forward. Prior to joining BUILD, she served as the Executive Director of the Illinois Governor’s Office of Early Childhood Development. In this capacity she led strategic partnerships with state agency leadership and private sector partners to develop and implement early childhood policy across multiple state agencies. Her team led the Preschool Development Grant (PDG B-5), supported the work of the Early Learning Council, and established the Statewide Leadership Team for implementation of evidence-based, trauma-informed approach to supporting children’s social and emotional development. Dr. Tate served as a senior administrator for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. She led the department’s clinical practice and professional development units, including integrated assessments and early childhood services in partnership with the Erikson Institute. She led the team that implemented the state’s birth-through-three federal demonstration project for infants and toddlers in foster care; created the first Office of Child Well Being; and initiated the Early Childhood Court Team. Dr. Tate received her doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the State University of New York at Albany and completed her internship in child/adolescent and community psychology at Rush Medical Center in Chicago.
