Gateway to Quality staff include:

Charlotte Ferretti
Principal Investigator

Gretchen Ames
Project Manager

Kathleen Chug
Administrative Coordinator

Barbra Blender
Assessment / Coaching Coordinator

Rosamaria Palafox
Anchor / Training Coordinator

Anchors
Kelly Lopez
Annabella Tong

Assessors and Coaches
Betty Rappaport
Christine O'Brien
Mara Siegel
Vivian Alipio
The Gateway to Quality Project is a collaborative effort among city agencies, community-based organizations, institutions of higher learning, child care providers, early childhood educators, and private foundations.

The project’s goal is to improve the quality of early child care and education in San Francisco. The Marian Wright Edelman Institute, housed at San Francisco State University, is the lead agency for evaluation of child care centers and family child care homes. The project is supported by the Department of Children, Youth, and Their Families, Department of Human Services (DHS), San Francisco First Five, and the Miriam and Peter Haas Fund.

The project began in 2002 as a pilot program to identify the quality of child care and education in San Francisco. The Harms Environmental Rating Scales were selected because they have been tested nationally for validity and reliability as evaluation tools for successfully identifying quality in center based and family child care sites. The Gateway to Quality program Assessors have access to numerous resources that can help providers improve various aspects of their programs.