WALNUT CREEK, CA, June 08, 2026 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Randi B. Wolfe, PhD, has been selected for inclusion in Marquis Who's Who. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.

In 2026, after seven years of building Early Care & Education Pathways to Success (ECEPTS) as Executive Director, Dr. Wolfe transitioned into a new role: Founder and Principal, Policy and Strategy. While remaining a vital part of the organization, the new role allows her to focus her expertise and impact on national policy, systems change, and the urgent challenges facing early care and education (ECE) as a workforce, industry, and national priority.

Dr. Wolfe served as founding Executive Director of ECEPTS from 2019 to 2026, building it into a nationally recognized authority on Registered Apprenticeship for the ECE industry and establishing the organization as an apprenticeship sponsor in California and a national industry intermediary. At the conclusion of her tenure, ECEPTS was sponsoring 38 Registered Apprenticeship programs across 11 California counties, engaging 78 employers, 16 community colleges, two universities, and more than 1,800 registered apprentices.

Under Dr. Wolfe's leadership, ECEPTS built a national field-building infrastructure, providing training and technical assistance in 20 states, leading Boot Camps that trained more than 300 participants from 169 organizations, and hosting five annual National Conferences on ECE Apprenticeship that drew 1100 participants from 42 states and territories. She also created and continues to host the ECEPTS podcast, "Early Care & Education: All Things Workforce."

In 2022, Dr. Wolfe was appointed to the U.S. Secretary of Labor's Advisory Committee on Apprenticeship (ACA) and served until 2025. Reflecting on the significance of her appointment, she said, "I am honored to represent early care and education, and the care economy more broadly, on the ACA. Guaranteeing these sectors a seat at the table confirms the Administration's commitment to increasing access to apprenticeships for essential industries dominated by women, people of color, and immigrants. As well, it will facilitate the expansion of accessible, responsive, sustainable professional pathways leading to family sustaining wages and robust career ladders for millions of workers committed to strengthening families, communities, and the overall economy."

Her pioneering work in developing career pathways for the early care and education workforce began before ECEPTS. As President and CEO of Tikkun Consulting (2011–2019), Dr. Wolfe focused on ECE workforce development, program design, and systems change. From 2015 to 2019, she collaborated with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) to establish the first Registered Apprenticeships in California for center-based early educators, Head Start staff, and family child care providers. Registered with the U.S. Department of Labor and the California Division of Apprenticeship Standards, the programs were aligned with the federal push to expand apprenticeship beyond the traditional trades and sustained with more than $4.3 million in public and private funding. In an independent program evaluation, the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at UC-Berkeley found that apprentices reported gains in their knowledge and improvements in their practice with children and families.

Dr. Wolfe began focusing on large-scale ECE workforce development initiatives when she moved from Chicago to Los Angeles in 2007. As Director of Workforce Development at Los Angeles Universal Preschool from 2007 to 2010, she designed and led the ECE Workforce Initiative, a countywide effort that awarded five-year grants to seven collaborations of community colleges and universities aimed at removing barriers and creating pathways to careers in early care and education. She also launched a stipend program that supported roughly 225 early educators annually in completing college coursework. And she secured $37 million to establish the LA County ECE Workforce Consortium, spanning the LA county offices of education and child care, the Resource & Referral Network, seven community colleges, and five California State University campuses.

Her expertise is also grounded in the academy. From 1997 to 2006, Dr. Wolfe was a tenured associate professor in the College of Education at Northern Illinois University, where she led the interdisciplinary early childhood unit; redesigned the program to strengthen its focus on diversity, dual language learners, and children with special needs; and more than tripled graduate enrollment while doubling the size of the undergraduate program. She published widely in peer-reviewed journals on parent education, teacher preparation, and diversity in early childhood settings. Her fieldwork in Kenya produced several publications, including "Developmentally and Culturally Appropriate Practice in the Global Village: The Kenya Literacy Project" (2004), published in the National Association for the Education of Young Children's journal, Young Children.

Dr. Wolfe earned her Ph.D. in Human Development and Social Policy from Northwestern University in 1997. Her dissertation was entitled, "Listening To Children: Three Studies Toward Developing, Evaluating, and Replicating a New Approach to Parent Education, Support, and Empowerment." She holds a Master of Education (Ed.M.) in Instructional Leadership from the University of Illinois Chicago (1983, summa cum laude) and a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Cleveland State University (1977, magna cum laude).

Dr. Wolfe's career in early childhood education began in 1982 as a preschool teacher at the Heller Jewish Community Center in Chicago. As Director of the Lincoln Park Child Care Center (1985–1990), she grew a half-day preschool into a full-service, year-round program and doubled its enrollment. She then served as Program Director and Site Director with Family Focus, an organization that served as a model for thousands of family support/strengthening programs across the country.

A sought-after voice in her field for more than 25 years, Dr. Wolfe presents regularly at national convenings. Most recently, these have included the Apprenticeships for America National Summit (Washington, DC, 2026), the BUILD25 National Conference (Los Angeles, 2025), the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (Long Beach, 2025), and the National Convening of the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification (Austin, 2025).

A Cleveland native, Dr. Wolfe spent 27 years in Chicago, 11 years in Los Angeles, and eight years in the San Francisco Bay Area before settling in the Lake Tahoe area. Her children and grandchildren have always been her greatest priority. Reflecting her love of music, she plays piano and guitar, and was the lyricist for two produced musicals: "Mom: The Musical" and "When Butter Churns to Gold." A firm believer in extending healthspan, as opposed to lifespan, she eats conscientiously, exercises daily, and nurtures close relationships with family and friends. Above all, her life has been guided since childhood by "tikkun olam"- the Jewish principle of repairing the world through the pursuit of justice, equality, and environmental healing.

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