Durham PreK Team
Durham PreK is supported by many people across many different agencies. Below you will find information on the Early Years Durham PreK Team.
Durham PreK is a true collaboration between local child care initiatives and organizations to achieve the vision of equitable access to high-quality pre-K for all children in Durham County. To view the collaborative team, click below.
Meet the Staff
Tammorah Mathis
Durham PreK Director
Tammorah Mathis
Durham PreK Director
Prior to serving as the Durham PreK Director, Tammorah served as the Director of Afterschool Programs for Orange County Schools in the School Community Relations Department. She was previously with the NC Department of Public Instruction (NC DPI), Federal Programs Monitoring and Support Division, as a Program Administrator for the 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program.
Tammorah shares that she thoroughly enjoys her career working with programs, students and families, along with networking with other entities who are engaged with positive youth development. She is a native of Bladen County, NC via Fort Benning, Georgia. Prior to joining NC DPI, she served as the Dean of Students and Response to Instruction (RtI) Administrator at W.G. Pearson Elementary School in Durham Public Schools.
Tammorah has over 20 years of experience supporting young people in Out-of-School Time Programs beginning with middle school programs in Durham Public Schools. She has instructional leadership experience as an exceptional children’s teacher and worked earlier in various support roles as a classroom assistant, bus driver, cafeteria staff member, out-of-school time group leader, volunteer and member of the PTA for over 25 years across North Carolina.
Tammorah currently serves as the Co-Chair of the North Carolina Center for Afterschool Programs Advisory Board. She earned a Master’s Degree in School Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an undergraduate degree in Political Science, with a concentration in Public Administration, from North Carolina Central University.
Tosh Adams
Outreach and Family Engagement Coordinator
Tosh Adams
Outreach and Family Engagement Coordinator
Hello, I am Tosh Adams and I am the new Durham PreK Outreach and Family Engagement Coordinator. I have always been very passionate about educating children. Previously, I taught prekindergarten through high school and worked as a preschool administrator for over 13 years. I graduated from North Carolina Central University after studying English and Early Childhood Education. Most recently, I worked at a nonprofit organization as an Education Specialist recruiting youth from around the state, implementing programming to empower them to make healthy life decisions. Outside of the office, I am also committed to helping others in the community by serving as Vice Chair of the Durham Special Needs Advisory Council (D-SNAC) and PTA Advocacy Chair at my son’s school. I am excited to join the Early Years team and look forward to working together to improve the quality of early education for all of Durham’s children and families.
Marilyn Agostini
DPK Program Manager I
Marilyn Agostini
DPK Program Manager I
Marilyn Agostini will be joining the Durham PreK Team as the new DPK Program Manager I. She holds a bachelor's degree in psychology with a minor in sociology from the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. Her career in the Early Childhood Education field started fifteen years before as a Bilingual NCPK Lead Teacher for three years at Childcare Network in Sanford. From there she moved into the program side of NC PreK as the NCPK Coordinator for the Lee County Partnership for Children & Families for ten years working one-on-one with families to enroll them in NC PreK and assisted with translating in Spanish to help families navigate through their PreK experience. She has also provided technical assistance in the centers with teachers and directors helping to prepare centers going through the Star-Rated licensing process. For as long as she can remember she has worked with children and young adults in many capacities from being a nanny, nursery worker, youth leader, and a teen camp counselor.
Marilyn started her journey into Durham PreK almost two years ago as the NC PreK Coordinator for Durham's Partnership for Children, a partnering agency of Durham PreK. She looks forward to this new opportunity to continue to serve the families of Durham County while helping to expand and support Durham’s universal pre-k mission and goals.
Maggie West
Workforce Support Manager
Maggie West
Workforce Support Manager
Maggie joins the Durham PreK team with over 15 years of experience designing and implementing holistic, person-centered and community-driven supports in nonprofit organizations and higher education in Durham and Orange Counties. Prior to joining Durham PreK, she served as the Coordinator for Student Wellness and Basic Needs at Durham Technical Community College, where she was responsible for building the capacity of the College to better provide wraparound resources to support student success, addressing student access to stable housing, healthy food, reliable child care, mental health services, health care, scholarships, and much more. Her role included a special focus on cultivating a community of support for student parents, including coordination of the Student Parent Success Network and extensive one-on-one support to parenting students. In this capacity she had the opportunity to get to know Durham PreK and Child Care Services Association, collaborating to ensure parenting students could find and afford high-quality child care in our community.
Prior to joining Durham Tech, Maggie served as the Co-Director and Co-Founder of the Community Empowerment Fund (CEF) for 10 years. CEF supports over 1,000 Members annually in Durham and Orange Counties experiencing homelessness or financial insecurity to gain employment, secure housing, and build financial wellbeing through relationship-based support and integrated service delivery. Maggie co-founded the organization as an undergraduate at UNC Chapel Hill, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts in Public Policy and Latin American Studies.
Maggie is grateful for the opportunity to bring these experiences and community-based relationships to the Durham PreK team in her role focused on supporting current and aspiring early educators as they obtain higher education and greater compensation within a community of peer support.
Adrienne Stephens
Communications & Public Engagement Coordinator
Adrienne Stephens
Communications & Public Engagement Coordinator
Adrienne Stephens is the Communications and Public Engagement Coordinator for Durham PreK. Stephens assists a cross-departmental team of professionals supporting Durham PreK, collaborates with community stakeholders, supports program sites, and develops program-wide communications and marketing campaigns. All of these efforts help to communicate services, advance priorities, and engage community members.
Adrienne brings with her to Early Years ten years of communications, social media and public relations experience, and a passion to make a difference in the lives of children. Over the years, she has gained creative and innovative skills through internships and working for institutions and non-profits such as Duke University’s School of Medicine and PBS NC. Adrienne is also a published author of the children’s book series, “The Beauty in Me,” which promotes positive self-esteem and self image.
Kathy Guerrero
Family Support Coordinator
Kathy Guerrero
Family Support Coordinator
Hola, I am Kathy Toro Guerrero, I am the Durham PreK Family Support Coordinator. I have worked for Child Care Resource and Referral agencies in Indiana and New Jersey for the past seventeen years. I graduated from Purdue University after studying Early Childhood Education and a Master Degree from Indiana Wesleyan University in Political Science. I have extensive experience working with the Latino community by helping to improve the quality and services provided to Spanish speaking families and child care providers. I am excited to join the Early Years team and look forward to working together to improve the quality of early education to all the families we serve.
Cecilia Gaytan Avilla
Family Support Specialist
Cecilia has worked at Early Years since January 2019. She began as a temp for pre-K, then transitioned to an administrative assistant role. As an administrative assistant, she continued her work with pre-K during peak months. Now, she is a full-time pre-K staff member as a Family Support Counselor.
Cecilia graduated on December 2021 from NCCU, with a BS in Psychology and is a certified Spanish interpreter.
Beverly Williams
Technical Assistance Manager
Beverly Williams
Technical Assistance Manager
Beverly Williams has been working with children for almost 30 years after graduating from ECU. In her career, she has worked in childcare centers as a floater, a teacher, a head/lead teacher, a program coordinator and, finally, a director. She has also worked as a Rated License Assessor for NCRLAP. She has been with Early Years for over 10 years where she has thoroughly worked with childcare centers, family child care homes, Head Start programs and the public schools.
Nita McAdoo
Instructional Support Manager II
Nita McAdoo
Instructional Support Manager II
Nita has worked for Early Years since 2006. Primarily serving in the role of mentoring/coaching supporting early educators as they grow in the early childhood field. Nita completed both her B.S. and M.S. at North Carolina Central University majoring in Family and Consumer Science with a minor in Counseling. Nita stated she absolutely loves working with early educators who are a part of Durham PreK. The joy in seeing classrooms providing quality experiences for all children brings joy to her heart. Nita’s hobbies include watching sports, going to the beach, and hanging out with her grandson, Austin!
Kamika Henderson
B-K Technical Assistant Specialist
Kamika Henderson
B-K Technical Assistant
Kamika obtained a Bachelor of Science in Child Development from Meredith College, Masters in Health Services Administration from Strayer University, and Masters of Education in Birth-Kindergarten Interdisciplinary Studies: Emphasis in Leadership and Program Administration from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Currently she holds a Birth-Kindergarten SPII license, Administration Level III and CLASS PreK Observer certification.
She has eleven years of experience working in the early childhood education field, with 8 years teaching students ages birth-5 years old. For two years she held the position as an administrator and one year as an evaluator at a developmental day center serving students with developmental and intellectual disabilities. In her role as a B-K Technical Assistant Specialist, she provided technical assistance including modeling and coaching for teachers utilizing the Classroom Assessment Scoring Systems. She serves as a mentor through collaboration with the Early Educator Support, Licensure, Professional Development Unit for a teacher in DPK only classrooms and support directors with program improvements using the Program Administration Scale.
Shawn Shefte
BK Technical Assistance Specialist
Shawn Shefte
BK Technical Assistance Specialist
Shawn Kuka Shefte has over 25 years of experience as an early childhood educator, in various types of programs, positions across three states. Most recently, before joining the Early Years TA Team, she worked in Chapel Hill Carrboro City Schools Dual Language Program based at Carrboro Elementary. During her tenure in the Dual Language Program she worked as both prek and kindergarten teacher. Along with her teaching duties, she served as cooperating/mentor teacher for UNC-CH’s BK Program, ECU’s BK Program and international teachers entering the Dual Language Program at CHCCS. Her love of mentoring and providing assistance to teachers/programs brought her to Early Years.
She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Florida in psychology and early childhood. Her graduate work in early childhood was completed at the American College of Education in Indianapolis, Indiana.
She lives in Chapel Hill with her husband. They have 4 children (3 daughters and one son- ages 24-30), a dog and a cat. Her mother and two of her daughters live close by. In her spare time she enjoys quilting, knitting, crocheting, playing cards, gardening and spending time with friends and family.
Maggie Connolly
Technical Assistance Manager
Maggie Connolly
Technical Assistance Manager
As a veteran early childhood educator with a wide variety of early childhood work experiences and many years of training and education; Maggie is first and foremost an advocate for young children, their families, and most importantly the professionals that serve them! Maggie's role on the DPK team is to support teachers and administrators in their understanding and daily use of the resources available in the Creative Curriculum and Teaching Strategies Gold. These tools allow for ongoing assessment of children's development, which provides data for planning activities that individualize instruction, leading to the highest quality educational experience for each child. Easier said than done but at DPK that is what is happening, and Maggie is pleased and proud to be a small part of that important work.
Joy Turner
Director of Data and Provider Relations
Joy Turner is the Director of Data and Provider Relations at Early Years. Joy received her Bachelor of Social Work degree from NC State University and her Master of Social Work degree from UNC-Chapel Hill with a focus in Community, Management, and Policy Practice. Joy's background includes HIV testing and counseling, volunteer management, and adult and family literacy program coordination. Her work with a family literacy program for immigrant families with young children sparked an interest in early childhood that led her to Early Years. Joy enjoys her behind the scenes role of tracking data, answering provider questions, and keeping databases updated that helps children receive the quality care they need to be successful in kindergarten and beyond. For Durham PreK, Joy oversees attendance collection and payments and assists providers with payment related questions.
Katherine Brandt
Provider Supplements and Data Manager
Katherine Brandt
Provider Supplements and Data Manager
Rachel Osborne
Durham PreK Data Manager
Rachel Osborne
Durham PreK Data Manager
Rachel Osborne is the Durham PreK Data Manager at Early Years. She received a Bachelor of Psychology from the State University of New York at Geneseo and a Master of Social Work from UNC Chapel Hill with a focus on Community, Management and Policy Practice.
Rachel’s passion for working with children and families led her to work as a nanny throughout high school and college, as a Program Assistant at Women, Infants and Children (WIC), and most recently as a Child Care Subsidy Caseworker. While pursuing her Master of Social Work, she selected an internship with Early Years’ System Research and Development division. Upon graduation, she sought employment with Early Years in order to continue supporting ECE providers and enabling families to access high quality ECE. For Durham PreK, Rachel assists with payments and program evaluations.
Michelle Hearon
Scholarship Senior Director
Michelle Hearon
Scholarship Senior Director
Martha Alba
Pre-K/Scholarship Services Coordinator
Martha Alba
Pre-K Scholarship Services Coordinator
Martha Alba, originally from Mexico, is the Pre-K/Scholarship Services Coordinator. She holds both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Family and Consumer Sciences with concentrations in both Child Development and Family Relations and Human Development and Family Studies from North Carolina Central University. She has over 10 years of experience in Early Childhood, prior to joining Early Years she worked as a lead teacher for a pre-K program and not only understands the importance of an early childhood education, but has seen firsthand how children benefit from it. She provides support and guidance for staff engaged with Pre-K/Scholarship services and helps implement special project activities related to these services.
Join the Team!
Are you interested in working on the Durham PreK team? You can find our job openings by clicking the link below. Please pay special attention to the application instructions as they may vary between positions.