Elsa Jacobsen serves as one of ECEC’s two directors of state policy and government relations. In this role, she leads ECEC’s policy and advocacy efforts in California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, Virginia and Washington. Jacobsen previously served as director of public policy at Child360, an early learning non-profit in Los Angeles. In this position she developed and executed strategies to advance policies at the local, state and federal levels that increased access to high-quality early education and supported the early childhood workforce. She also worked side by side with child advocacy organizations, direct service providers and business organizations on policy and advocacy efforts, which helped secure thousands of new child care and preschool spaces for California’s children and raise reimbursement rates for child care providers. In addition, she conducted original research that informed policy and that highlighted, for legislators, the perspectives of both teachers and child care providers. Prior to her work at Child360, Jacobsen served as a law clerk with Young, Minney & Corr, LLP where she worked on a host of education issues for over 75 charter school clients. She also served an Education Pioneers Fellowship with the California Charter Schools Association and a Bing Public Service Fellowship in the office of the late Congressman Tom Lantos (D-CA). Jacobsen earned a bachelor’s degree in history and a master’s in education policy analysis and evaluation from Stanford University, and a law degree from the J. Reuben Clark Law School.