Bosses for Babies

How This Boss Makes an Impact for Children in Florida

The Early Learning Shared Services Alliance (ELSSA) strives to be family-friendly as an employer. As a fully virtual organization, all of ELSSA’s staff have the flexibility to work from home on a daily basis, allowing them to be present for their children and families when needed. In addition, flexible scheduling is offered to accommodate individual team members’ family needs, including school drop off and pick up, doctor’s appointments, nursing of infants by mothers, and home-based infant care, among other familial situations that may arise throughout the course of a work day.

Furthermore, the very focus of ELSSA’s work – offering shared services that strengthen small childcare programs – is about increasing the availability of high-quality, affordable child care – something so crucial for the growth and development of Florida’s youngest learners. 

Bio

Kate Byrne, Executive Director of ELSSA, has had a long career in finance and business management. After selling the business that she co-founded and ran for fifteen years, she joined the Early Learning Coalition of Orange County, Florida, where she implemented the Business Institute for Early Learning Entrepreneurs, a business management training program for childcare program owners and directors.

In 2021, Kate founded ELSSA, a non-profit organization that provides back-office business administration services for small childcare programs. ELSSA currently serves over 50 fifty childcare centers and family child care homes in Central Florida’s neediest communities by providing staff recruitment and retention services, enrollment marketing, automation through childcare management software, bookkeeping, payroll and business coaching. With ELSSA’s support, childcare programs are able to hire and retain qualified staff, achieve full enrollment and attain financial sustainability.

Kate holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics, magna cum laude, and an MBA, both from Harvard University. She lives in Winter Park, FL with her husband, and has two adult children.