Margarita Feliz

Program Quality Coach

Margarita Feliz began her journey in early childhood 25 years ago as a Parent Counselor, sharing information and guiding parents in their search for quality child care in NYC.  She quickly developed an awareness for the different needs for support in the field that sparked a career path curiosity. While she strategized her next professional move, she became Senior Policy Analyst. Through that role she acquired deep knowledge about the complex ECE NYC child care system and the intricacies that made our ECE system so unique yet difficult to navigate at times. She developed a set of skills and knowledge that allowed her to manage and interact with a wide range of stakeholders. Although that work was rewarding, she found true joy in helping others become better at their practice and obtained her M.S. in Childhood Education from Lehman College. She focused on family child care and became the first to hold the Family Child Care Coordinator title for the NYC Administration for Children’s Services. Under this newly developed role, she was in charge of leading program management reviews and supports for 30 contracted NYC Family Child Care Networks servicing approximately 1,600 family child care providers. She then moved on to successfully lead a Family Child Care Network where she further polished her true gifts as a leader and ECE Coach. She was able to successfully shift network practices from an enforcement model to a strength based model. Margarita also holds a New York State Training and Technical Assistance Professional (T-TAP) Credential as a Coach for Teachers in an Early Childhood and School Age setting.

She is an authentic bilingual reflective leader/trainer/coach who enjoys learning, piloting new initiatives and coaching. Her success is grounded in a unique and natural style for providing feedback to staff and providers in a way that is engaging, respectful and takes into account their own culture and experiences as learners.  She is a strong believer of self reflection and in caring for our own needs in order for us to be able to be centered enough to give and support others.  She enjoys the outdoors and discovering new holistic practices that can help us live more fulfilling lives. 

Email: mfeliz@qualitystarsny.org