Dr. Melania Kesoglou, director of education at Children First, has been invited to serve on the National Head Start Association's Region IV Foster Care Challenge (FCC) committee. In this role, Kesoglou will help oversee the FCC’s work in Head Start’s Region IV, the southeastern United States, representing more than 170,000 children, 40,000 staff and 300 member programs.

The goal of the committee is to find "forever homes" for youth ages 13-17 who are currently living within the foster care system. The FCC works in collaboration with the offices of Head Start and Child Welfare to promote teen adoptions, with recruitment efforts focusing on teens currently in foster care, experiencing homelessness, or in transition, as well as teens participating in the Early Head Start Expectant Parent Program.

As Director of Education at Children First, Kesoglou oversees the Head Start and Early Head Start Education programs at 15 locations throughout Sarasota County, which provide high-quality early childhood education to approximately 900 children annually, from infancy to age 5.