40 Influential Leaders - Jackie Cowell

Jackie Cowell
Executive Director of Early Learning NH

For close to a quarter century, Jackie Cowell has advocated for strong early learning programs in NH. Cowell says crucial brain development occurs in a child’s first five years, laying the trajectory for cognitive skills and the ability to form healthy relationships. A nurturing environment builds a foundation for success, she says. Conversely, early toxic stress can be correlated to heart disease and depression later in middle age.

“You can always intervene. Let’s give them the right start,” she says. Strong childcare programs run up against two major barriers: affordability and retention and recruitment of childcare workers, Cowell says. Working with business and policy leaders, Cowell helped champion a state budget that lowered the income requirements for childcare scholarships and bolstered support for staff. Beginning in 2024, a working family will only need to pay up to 7% of their gross family income on childcare to secure a scholarship. The state budget also includes a one-time allocation of $15 million to be distributed to childcare employers.

Since 2005, Cowell has directed Early Learning NH, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting programs such as childcare, Head Start, preschool, and afterschool initiatives. Cowell ran a childcare program in NH in the 90s and early 2000s. At the White Birch Community Center in Henniker, Cowell doubled the center’s income in less than five years without increasing overhead costs. Childcare centers can’t replicate what she did in the 90s, she says, because of the increased challenges they face.