Meet Our Director
Leila Kaszubinski
We have some exciting news to share with you this week at Simon Center! We are thrilled to announce the appointment of our new director, Leila Kaszubinski. In her time with us at the Simon Center, which began in 1998, Leila has worn many hats and held various positions that have made her the perfect candidate to take on this new role.
Leila’s career in childcare and early childhood development started a bit earlier than most, at age 10. While attending daycare herself, she was offered the role of “homework helper”, assisting her fellow peers with their school projects and assignments. “I made a dollar an hour”, Leila recalls, “It was like my mother paid me one dollar an hour to go to daycare. It was great.”
It didn’t take long for Leila to determine where her career was headed. It was a straight path forward for her to working in school-age childcare while pursuing her early childhood development degree. From there, she made the bold career change to transition to infant and toddler care, where she became an infant and toddler specialist for the Simon Center. For seven years Leila ran our toddler room, the last three of which were spent in the dual role of also serving as the infant toddler program coordinator. As program coordinator, she was responsible for developing a seamless transition process for our children as they progressed from infants, to toddlers, to the two-year old room. In 2005, Leila was appointed as our assistant director and has served in that role since.
In addition to her substantial qualifications and experience, Leila is a perfect reflection of the values and philosophies that the Simon Center embodies, particularly the importance of a flexible and open curriculum that meets children where they are in their development, rather than trying to make them fit a set mold.
“Each child’s path to preparing for school might be a little different than another child’s path. You have to be open to teaching them the way that they learn so that everyone can get to the same place where they are ready for school. By trying to stick them on the same path every time, you’re taking away their opportunity to actually grow as a person.”
Leila feels this shared philosophy is particularly evident in the learning methods utilized at Simon Center to engage children and help them learn at their own place. Theme-based learning and functional play are two ways that Leila believe give children the opportunity to have fun and enjoyable experiences while still developing the learning strategies and problem-solving skills that will help them be more successful in school.
As a lifelong native of Washington D.C., Leila also holds a strong belief in the importance of diversity and inclusion in the classroom, particularly when it comes to helping children to celebrate and embrace their different cultural backgrounds. This includes ensuring that children with multiple language backgrounds are encouraged to continue developing aspects of all their spoken languages and finding creative ways to integrate them into an English classroom. “The commitment to diversity can also be seen reflected in our staff, where we have teachers from all different backgrounds, with different specialties, all of whom bring a different perspective to our classrooms.”
Outside of her dedication to the Simon Center, Leila is a lover of all animals. At home, she and her husband David enjoy the company of their three dogs, Rosie, Sasha, and Selkie, and two cats, Oscar and Echo. They also enjoy spending time with their horse, Dolly, at the local stable where she is boarded. Her love of animals has always shown in the classroom, where the children at the Simon Center have gotten to enjoy watching her care for all kinds of class pets like mice, hamster, guinea pigs, fish, and lately the Simon Center resident tortoise, Queen. Leila is a musical lover and would pick Grease if she had to choose a favorite, which she enjoys even more combined with her favorite go-to food, pizza.
We are thrilled to have Leila stepping into this exciting role and look forward to her commitment to continuing to grow with the Simon Center while still maintaining our core values and working towards our community goals .Visit our website to follow more exciting announcements, or for more information about joining our program . We are open to the community and look forward to meeting you!
