Congratulations to the newly elected 2021 – 2022 INA Board of Directors. The new team will be installed on August 1, 2021 virtually. Stay tuned for information on how you can watch this event. See full bios for the new Board below.
President: Laura Schroeder
Co-Vice Presidents: Helen McCarthy and Sue Downey
Secretary: Greta Schraer
Treasurer: Stacie Steelman
Directors:
- Alene Mathurin
- Austin Macfarlane
- Emily Rolen
- Jennifer Hough
- Marcia Sims
- Rachel Lawrence
- Ruka Curate
Please join us in thanking Rachael Lubin and Christa Nader for their years of service on the INA Board of Directors! While they still have a few more months on the Board as we transition to our 2021 – 2022 Board of Directors, Rachael and Christa attended their final Board Meeting this weekend. We are grateful for their time, dedication, and hard work that they have put into our organization throughout their years of service.
Ruka Curate: Ruka is the woman behind Tiny Treasures Nanny Agency and she knows just how important having a connection is when pairing a nanny with a family. Finding the perfect fit not only gives parents peace of mind but provides a stable and enriched environment for children in the childminder’s care. It is also very important that the childcare providers that she matches feel like they are valued and working with a great family. Ruka is a strong advocate of legal pay for nannies, educating her clients to understand protective classes and hire without discrimination. A nanny herself for over 14 years, now that Ruka is ‘Mom’ to a beautiful little girl, she has an even deeper understanding of how important it is to create these almost perfect matches. With insight on both sides, she has been successfully connecting families with nannies, mannies and babysitters for a very long time. When she is not playing matchmaker to parents and nannies in NYC, Ruka is always looking for more time to studying neuroscience at NYU’s Center for Neuroscience and Hunter College Psychology Department. Her current area of study is adolescent and anxiety-related behaviors due to stress in females.
Sue Downey: Sue is a nanny and has been since she accidentally found the profession 25 years ago. She started as a live-out nanny for 4 boys in Cincinnati, Ohio and then moved on to the Philadelphia area as a live-in nanny. She has stayed in the suburbs of Philly ever since. Since she tends to stay with families for longer contracts, Sue has also worked as a family assistant, helping families with remodeling, cooking, organization and more. In her spare time, Sue works on a few nanny projects such as the conference Nannypalooza, interNational Nanny Training Day and one of the founders of Our Nanny Diary. She has led workshops at the INA conference, NAEYC conference, Nannypalooza as well as local and regional gatherings. Sue’s full-time job is caring for a family just outside Philadelphia, where she spends her days trying to not step on legos, playing dragons, and reading the same book over and over and over again and loving every minute of it all!
Jennifer Hough: “Jenn” has over 8 years of nanny experience on the North Shore of Boston working with children from birth to 14 years of age. She specializes in caring for children with different developmental needs. Jenn holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Exercise Science from Salem State University and is a passionate nanny advocate. Additionally, Jennifer is a Newborn Care Specialist, CPST, Fertility, Birth, and Postpartum Doula in training, and an active member of the local nanny community!
Rachel Lawrence: Rachel is a proud mother of three young children, including a set of twins, and has a solid 15-year foundation in the in-home childcare industry. She has worked as a nanny, a placement counselor, has operated her own boutique nanny placement agency, and as a working mom, she is also a nanny employer. Rachel has previously served as a Board of Directors member, and as the Operations Manager for the International Nanny Association. She is now the Agency Partner Specialist at HomeWork Solutions; advising nannies, families, and agencies on HR, taxes, and the importance of legal pay. She is the founder of FairAndLegalPay.com, a coalition designed to raise awareness about the need for legal pay in the industry, and to empower individuals to educate others about why it is so important.
Alene Mathurin – Alene is a detailed-oriented, outside-the-box thinker who has served in the nanny community in many different capacities. Her strength lies in the ability to mobilize and unite people from various diaspora. She’s both a published and self-published author who has written seven books and her work has been featured in the New York Times. Her heart lies in everyday people, especially those that are marginalized and she believes that part of her purpose is being a voice for those that are sometimes voiceless either because of language or other layers of complexities. She’s a mother, business owner, friend and confidant too many. Her online platform only gives a small glimpse of the work she has done in the nanny community, as she has been able to mobilize a very strong grassroots movement of nannies who operate outside social media. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a minor in Public Administration and she will be graduating in 2020 with a Master’s degree in BioPharma and Clinical Drug.
Austin Macfarlane: Austin is a dedicated, loving, passionate professional who really focuses on getting involved in projects she truly cares about. She lives by the saying “love what you do, and you’ll never work a day in your life.” Over the last 10 years she launched My Girl Friday in the Triangle area of North Carolina. Her team at My Girl Friday is close knit, loving, passionate about the betterment of the nanny industry, and they love finding amazing fits for both nannies and families. Helping create wonderful relationships is at the center of their focus.
She and her partner also have a kombucha brewery out of Cary, North Carolina—Tribucha Kombucha. She and Adrian have worked together to raise sizable capital for the brewery and have put a huge emphasis on company culture, health, and wellness. In 2020, she helped launch the Nanny Relief Fund, which quickly raised almost $100,000 for nannies in need. She assisted with building out secure systems that allowed the team to get this money into the nanny community’s hands as quickly, thoroughly, and fairly as possible. She loves working with this dynamic team and has developed a passion for the ins and outs of nonprofit life.
In her spare time, she loves to hike, kayak, and be on the water in any capacity she can. She also has a love for traveling! She’s a dog mom and enjoys spending time with Arlo, her pup. She loves to garden and cook with her veggies and herbs. She appreciates the meditative nature of cooking intricate meals and can oftentimes be found in the kitchen making amazing dishes from scratch. She loves learning from and connecting with other human beings. She’s addicted to Audible and just recently jumped into Clubhouse!
Helen McCarthy: Helen is a Professional Qualified British Nanny (N.N.E.B) with over 28 years experience as a Nanny, NCS, Childcare Consultant and has worked in Europe, Asia, USA, UAE and the UK. Helen has devoted her career to the care of children at all stages of life, with all levels of needs. Over the course of the past 19 years, Helen has developed an exclusive focus on caring for new-borns. As one of the pre-eminent NCS’s, she has amassed a deep understanding of the needs and development of newborns including premature infants, twins, triplets, and babies with allergies. 2015 saw Helen returning to nannying after attending Nannypalooza which inspired her to become a member of the INA. Helen was named INA 2016 Nanny of the year which saw her travel to Australia where she spoke at Nannypalooza OZ and being featured in the Financial Times Documentary on the new Upstairs Downstairs. Helen’s passion for educating Nannies to the highest level has seen the launch of UK Nanny, Ltd., the only events company for Nannies. Helen has been an INA Member since 2015 and joined the Board in 2018.
Emily Rolen: Emily has worked with children of all ages for the last ten years. She then started The Nanny Collaborative with an amazing team of administrators, three years ago this past August. It is an online forum for nannies that brings in experts from all over the world and reaches across barriers to find common ground. It has been educational and informative to the community, while also providing a relaxed atmosphere for nannies to learn and grow. Since then, she has worked and teamed up with various organizations and online forums to promote advocacy for domestic workers and children at home and abroad. She believes that collaboration with everyone in our profession can make our industry stronger. Working with professionals, organizations, and experts from Europe and the UK have made her realize that we are not that different in the struggles we face. She is wholly committed to seeing the industry move forward.
Greta Schraer: Greta Schraer has devoted the last two decades of her life to the childcare industry as a professional nanny, youth minister, nanny community director and nanny placement agency owner. CincyNanny began in 2009, first as a community of professional career nannies when Greta began gathering Cincinnati nannies for training, playdates, social events and professional peer support. In 2015, Greta expanded CincyNanny to offer nanny placement, connecting families and career nannies for employment. Greta has a heart to mentor families through the hiring process, advocating for legal pay and excellent screening. She seeks to coach candidates and mentor nanny leaders with her expertise and unique voice in the industry. Greta seeks to live the core values of integrity, loyalty, innovation, collaboration & purpose through her work. She has served a cumulative 7 years on the INA Board and was awarded the INA Nanny of the Year Award in 2010. Leading with integrity, locally and nationally, Greta has a heart to elevate the nanny industry overall, while empowering all women in the workforce. Providing excellent jobs for nannies, excellent support for mothers managing both family and career and ultimately enriching the lives of children.
Greta has been a member of the INA since 2009 and joined the Board of Directors in 2015.
Laura Schroeder: Laura has been working with children for her entire career, but found her true calling as a nanny after giving birth to her own 3 precious children . Laura is an INA credentialed nanny currently working with a HNW family in historic Charleston, SC. She is certified in Connection Centered Discipline and is a Positive Discipline Parent Educator. She has also taken Newborn Care Specialist and ABA training, and has been a long time member of NAEYC and NDWA.. Laura founded the popular Charleston Area Nanny Network with over 11.5k members in 2013 and is very active in the nanny community in her area to this day. One of her greatest honors was being named a nominee for the 2017 INA Nanny of the Year. Laura has been happily married to her best friend for 35 years and loves living near Folly Beach, SC. She has been an INA member since 2014, an INA board member since 2017, and has served as INA President since March, 2019.
Marcia Sims: Marcia Sims has a heart and drive for advocacy. She is not blind to the challenges that many working as nannies are not motivated to provide good care or interested in learning. She believes we need to find ways to make a distinction in this area so parents can make an informed viable decision about who to hire. She also believes we need to provide equity and access for those with limited English skills or income to afford learning. While easy to translate learning or making it available online to access whenever and wherever possible, if a nanny does not have the equipment or skills to access and learn, we need to give back and provide these opportunities for them. Marcia is someone who believes in building bridges to close these gaps. The nanny industry unfortunately is fragmented and invisible to the larger childcare community. The INA has an opportunity and obligation as the umbrella organization of the industry to collaborate with other national organizations, such as the NDWA or NAEYC to share resources, ideas and information.
Stacie Steelman: Stacie Steelman began her career as a Corporate Financial Recruiter, sourcing and qualifying hundreds of financial professionals in Los Angeles for Adecco/Ajllon Corporation, a $5 billion global recruitment leader across industries. Stacie extensively worked with Human Resource and Finance Departments at companies such as Sony Pictures Entertainment, E! Entertainment, Deloitte, Arthur Anderson (Anderson Global). Over the years after supporting the company through a major acquisition of a local firm, Stacie relocated to San Diego in 2001 working at that time for a boutique recruiting firm servicing companies like Home Depot, Petco, and the Del Mar Racetrack. Shortly after the birth of her first child Stacie recognized the obvious need in the San Diego market for reliable, trustworthy, “on call” in home care solutions. In 2006 Stacie began her entrepreneurial venture by founding Crunch Care, today, a division of Steelman Staffing & Associates. Today Steelman Staffing & Associates services 7 metropolitan markets in the US, is partners with multiple publicly traded companies within the care industry providing in home staffing services to employees at companies such as Apple, Google, Facebook, and Bank of America and a host of other mid-size companies in their local markets. Stacie has her B.A. in English from The University of South Florida. Stacie is an active Member and Media Spokesperson of the American Staffing Association, an Executive Board Member for the International Nanny Association acting as Treasurer for over 5 years, and is an active Member of the Association of Premiere Nanny Agencies.