Elena Montoya

Senior Research and Policy Associate

As Senior Research and Policy Associate, Elena’s current work focuses on the California Early Care & Education Workforce  Study, early childhood workforce data, transitional kindergarten, monitoring California state policy related to the early childhood workforce, and providing technical assistance and advisement on workforce issues to working groups and external organizations. She has over 15 years of experience in early care and education, including stakeholder and community engagement and conducting research on early childhood teacher preparation programs. Prior to joining CSCCE in 2015, she conducted research on child care availability, need, and costs at the California Child Care Resource & Referral Network, led research projects on California early education and children’s well-being at Children Now, and served as the California state coordinator for the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s KIDS COUNT project. Elena earned a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from the University of Texas and holds a California multiple subject teaching credential. She enjoys baking projects, reading cookbooks, and discovering new music.