“We’re setting our money on fire in this country,” says Muncey. “Ninety percent of brain development happens before a child’s fifth birthday. Yet, it’s not until then that we start pouring money into them.” The investment needs to start earlier, she contends. As cofounder and copresident of Neighborhood Villages, a Boston-based nonprofit driving early education and childcare policy reform, Muncey is dedicated to ensuring high-quality, affordable care for Massachusetts families.
An English major involved with Dartmouth’s Directing through Recreation, Education, Adventure, and Mentoring (DREAM) program, Muncey recalls the relationship-building with kids and families when she was a student as “incredibly humbling.” Following a stint with Teach for America and a master’s in education from Harvard, she spent 12 years working in the Boston public school system, where she saw students increasingly affected by poverty and trauma. “I was deeply entrenched in education and the ed-reform movement,” she says.
With Neighborhood Villages, “we listen to the field and curate solutions where we can—and create solutions where they don’t exist,” Muncey says. The organization has trained more than 3,500 early childhood educators through developing Massachusetts’ first—and largest—registered apprenticeship program, advanced legislation to fund childcare, and partnered with the LEGO Foundation to develop a toddler curriculum.
“Making childcare affordable has to be a public investment,” says Muncey, explaining it’s a public good that costs more than many people can afford. Classmate and board member Henry Ford III ’02 calls Muncey’s work transformative. “Sarah and her team have moved mountains in a very difficult field,” he says. “Neighborhood Villages has positively impacted thousands of lives on multiple levels in areas critical to human development.”
