Swati Adarkar
Meet Swati, VP Head of US Programs. For more than thirty years, Swati has been a strong advocate for thriving children, families, and communities. She has served in leadership roles in government (federal and local) and advocacy (national, state, and local) across a range of policy issues including child and family well-being, health, hunger, nutrition, housing, education, and income supports.
Prior to Imaginable Futures, Swati led early learning policy and strategy in the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education at the US Department of Education during the Biden Harris Administration. While at the US Department of Education, Swati led the Department’s early learning initiatives including Kindergarten Sturdy Bridge. Prior to that she served as the National Policy Director for Start Early focused on federal early learning policy and building new partnerships.
Swati was the Co-Founder and President & CEO of the Children’s Institute in Oregon for 15 years, an early childhood policy and advocacy organization. Swati served on statewide advisory committees on early childhood for three Oregon governors. She provided the vision and leadership to launch and sustain the Early Works initiative, a nationally recognized model program which aligns birth to five services and supports with elementary school.
Q&A
What is your headline statement for your career history
Change the Odds for Children through Greater Educational Opportunity and Addressing Poverty. Passionate about educational opportunity and addressing poverty, I came to early childhood education and development to address inequities upstream. I have worked on public policy advances at the local, state and federal levels to increase resources and improve fragmented systems. An important learning is the critical need to engage families and communities in all aspects of this work to have enduring progress.
What lessons did you learn early in your career that you keep with you today?
Stay connected to what’s happening on the ground in communities.
What current Imaginable Futures endeavors most excite you?
I am excited by the opportunity to engage in learnings across continents and countries (US, Kenya, and Brazil) that can advance greater equity and innovation.
If you didn’t work at Imaginable Futures, what would you be doing?
Engaging in early care and learning with more time with my new baby granddaughter!
If you could be one character from a book? Who would you choose and why?
Perveen Mistry is the only female solicitor (lawyer) in Bombay in the 1920s in the Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey. She navigates the numerous barriers and cultural norms at a time women were not allowed to be engaged in this kind of work including being forbidden from speaking up and representing clients in a courtroom. With smarts, bravery, and finesse she solves thorny mysteries in this series advocating for and protecting women.
Where is your happy place?
Walking at the beach.
What’s the closest thing to real magic in this world?
Seeing children receive the love and supports they deserve to thrive, and shine.
If someone narrated your life, who would you want it to be?
My two children.
Favorite quote:
"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." -- Franklin D. Roosevelt.
What do you imagine or wish for the future?
I hope we can find the avenues to forge common ground and shared purpose to meet the needs of the many people who are without safety, adequate resources and opportunity so that they may lead the dignified lives people around the globe deserve.