On today’s episode of The Confluence: The first director of Allegheny County’s Department of Children Initiatives, Rebecca Mercatoris, lays out her vision for the department; the North Allegheny School District board has voted to make mask-wearing optional, but the decision could be overruled by the state Supreme Court; and author Yaa Gyasi discusses about her second book, “Transcendent Kingdom,” which is included as part of the Pittsburgh Arts and Lectures Ten Evenings Series.
“As a longtime Allegheny County resident, working mother, early childhood educator, advocate and policymaker, I am immensely proud that Allegheny County has created the Department of Children s Initiatives. All of Allegheny County s children and families deserve comprehensive, equitable and high quality early learning and out-of-school time services if we are to continue to build our county s reputation as a great place to live, work and raise children,” Mercatoris said Tuesday.
Ashton Jones Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald during a meeting in downtown Pittsburgh on Tuesday, May 25, 2021.
About $400,000 in funding for the department was included in the county’s 2021 budget.
Mercatoris has held a number of positions related to early childhood education, including for Pennsylvania’s Office of Child Development and Early Learning and with the Pittsburgh Association for the Education of Young Children. She is a resident of Ben Avon.