Dena Roberts

Background

About Dena Roberts

Dena has over 30 years of experience in Education. She started her passion for children when she was in high school and took a job at q local childcare center. She received her BA in Early Childhood from Concordia University, St. Paul, Minnesota. Dena continued her journey after graduation as a Literacy coach and MTSS specialist. She was part of a research program in St. Paul, Minnesota: Project Early Kindergarten where she worked with the teachers and family childcare providers implementing a core curriculum that she co-authored and providing coaching for teachers and family childcare partners. After the project came to a completion, she continued her career as the Director of Professional Development for Early Learning Labs. During her time as the Director, she co-wrote an observational assessment for children ages 3-5. She understands the importance of Early Education and getting children the support they need to succeed in school. As her role as the director, she also created and presented all the professional development materials. After Early Learning labs was acquired, she continued working with state and district stakeholders as an Executive Customer Success Manager. As a CSM, she helped stakeholders implement assessments and practice products into their schools. She worked closely with the stakeholders to establish goals and work to achieve those goals throughout the year. She took pride in establishing trusting and meaningful relationships with her stakeholders. These relationships would take her though one of the hardest and challenging periods we have seen in education-The Pandemic. Schools, teachers and students had to get a crash course in virtual learning. There were many obstacles to overcome and the education world as we knew it was changing. We continue to see the affects the Pandemic has had on our children. While children are behind on academics, Dena is seeing the biggest challenges around social emotional health. Not only with the children but with staff. Dena is excited to take this new role of Director of Education Sales Solution & Marketing Guru. Many years ago, a colleague told her, “You can’t give anything when your cup is empty, and children are going to struggle to learn if they come to school and their cup is empty as well.” Dena believes kid-grit has tools so that both staff and children will start their day with their cups a little more full.