Get To Know Binal Patel: The New Executive Director of Neighborhood Villages

Executive Director Binal Patel

We are thrilled to announce that Chief Program Officer, Binal Patel, has been named the new Executive Director of Neighborhood Villages. 

A former preschool educator, program director and mother of two children herself, Binal brings experience and passion to the role. Throughout her time at Neighborhood Villages, she has led the implementation of the direct service programs and spearheaded the growth of the organization. 

Binal credits the Neighborhood Villages team for working tirelessly over the past several years - both on the ground and behind the scenes - to change early childhood education for the better. She is honored to continue working alongside them in her new position.

We sat down with Binal to talk about her devotion to education and what she envisions for the future of Neighborhood Villages.

What brought you to early childhood education?

Working with young children has always been a passion of mine, but it was actually not my first job. I graduated with a degree in Economics and worked as a Marketing Analyst after college. I enjoyed the job and the people, but I wasn’t bringing any passion to the work. After an unexpected death of a good friend, I realized that while I dreamed of being a teacher “one day”, that one day may never come.

So, I quit my job right then, and applied to be an Assistant Teacher in a Preschool classroom. I had a great mentor and director who really instilled confidence in me, and encouraged me to trust my instincts. I didn’t have any formal training at the time, but she saw the potential in me as an educator and really validated that I had made the right choice. So I decided to get my Master’s degree in Early Childhood Education at NYU and I’ve been an educator ever since. 

How did you first come across Neighborhood Villages?

I was an educator for many years, then sort of fell into the role of director of an early childhood program. While I was there, I decided to become an adjunct professor at Bunker Hill Community College. This is where I met [Neighborhood Villages co-presidents] Sarah and Lauren and heard about Neighborhood Villages for the first time. The course that I taught through Bunker Hill was at the Epiphany Early Learning Center. It was one of the first programs they launched at Neighborhood Villages, bringing the higher-ed classes to the educators at the program site on a Saturday morning, with food and childcare and no barriers. I happened to be the instructor of that first course. 

When I met Sarah and Lauren, I would listen to them talk about the mission of Neighborhood Villages, and the challenges within the system, and I kept thinking to myself, “These are all the things I’m experiencing as a Director! The parents can’t afford the tuition and the teachers can’t afford the salary. I thought it was me, but it’s actually the system that doesn’t work!”

I was immediately drawn to this work of systems change, and envisioning what early childhood could be if it worked for educators, children, and families. My five-years at Neighborhood Villages- starting as the Director of Workforce then to Chief Program Officer and now as Executive Director- has been such an incredible journey.

Why Neighborhood Villages?

I think what is so unique about Neighborhood Villages, and the thing we've really stood our ground on, is that we not only advocate for a true system, we show it in action every day.  

We believe that an early education system is possible. Don’t tell us it’s not possible. We’re going to keep saying it is and we’re going to keep showing you how.

When we think about child care, we can’t just copy and paste K-12. We are talking about a completely different age group and time in brain development, a completely different time in families’ lives, and a completely different set of educators and caregivers.  We have to build a system that is specifically for early childhood education, one that cares for the adults who care for young children, and to do that we need to build it with the experts themselves - the educators and the families. And that is the ethos and foundation of how we approach everything at Neighborhood Villages, and I think it makes us really unique.

What’s one project that you’re especially proud of accomplishing?

I don’t think I can pick one, so I’ll say the first couple that come to mind: our Learning through Exploration curriculum, scaling COVID testing statewide, and launching our Registered Apprenticeship program. 

The curriculum we are writing is phenomenal and I wish that I had something like this when I was an educator. We are not writing a curriculum for educators, we are writing it WITH them, piloting it with children in classrooms, getting feedback, reiterating it - I just think it’s an incredible process and the end result of the curriculum itself is the definition of the high-quality we so deeply believe in. 

Another was COVID testing. It was an example of when a lot of people told us “It’s not possible. It’s too complicated.” I have these memories of us all being in our living rooms and basements, packaging tests in boxes and bags. And we just kept saying over and over, “It’s possible. We’re piloting it now!” Then one day we got the call and scaled the program to a fully government funded, statewide initiative. It was the first time we showed everybody that child care infrastructure is necessary and possible. 

The Registered Apprenticeship Program is super close to my heart. It’s one that I knew I wanted to do when I first started at Neighborhood Villages because coming from the classroom, I felt like there was not enough support and training for early educators. I really wanted to provide that foundation and mentorship for educators that I felt like I never had the capacity to provide as a Director. I am also really passionate about increasing the diversity of Directors and Leadership in the field. We are now in our 3rd cohort of our registered apprenticeship program, for both educators and aspiring Directors, and it has been wonderful to support these educators in their journey.

What does this leadership expansion mean for the future of Neighborhood Villages? 

We’re soon approaching 10 years since Neighborhood Villages was first started, and we have seen so much growth not just in our programs, but also in our staff over the past few years.

The team at Neighborhood Villages is amazing and dedicated and such an inspiration. They really see the vision and believe in that system. I'm so grateful to get to do this work alongside them every day.

In this new role, I’ll be working very closely with both Sarah and Lauren as Co-Presidents to lead us into this next chapter of Neighborhood Villages- developing our new strategic plan, leading the implementation of our programs and policy work, and navigating the current landscape to ensure we stay true to our vision of that early childhood system. It is possible, and we will keep showing how!