Nasha Patel

Nasha Patel is a leader in the early childhood field. She most recently served as Senior Advisor for Planning and Strategy at the Oregon Early Learning Division, and previously served as the Deputy Assistant Superintendent of Early Childhood Strategy at the Louisiana Department of Education. In that role, she led the strategy to increase access to and quality of care and education for children in Louisiana through the state’s unified birth-to-five system. 

Nasha started her career as a teacher in rural Louisiana, and began working at the Louisiana Department of Education as an intern. She began her career in early childhood education as a policy analyst on the early childhood team, implementing the ambitious vision of the state’s groundbreaking legislation to unify a fragmented early childhood system that prepared too few children for Kindergarten. During her time on the early childhood team, Louisiana launched a nationally innovative quality rating system, locally-coordinated enrollment systems, and increased aligned state supports for families, providers, and the workforce. Nasha secured $139M for Louisiana through the three federal Preschool Development Grants, and directed strategy and implementation for all grant rounds. 

She received her B.A. from Barnard College in Classics, with a concentration in education and her teaching certification, and her M.Ed. in Education Policy and Management from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.