Our team – EARLY STARTERS INTERNATIONAL

Ran Cohen Harounoff has been involved in early childhood education his entire adult life; an entrepreneur in education, he has established schools, a network of preschools, and early childhood training programs around the world. He is currently a consultant on reforms in early childhood education at the international, national and local levels. Ran is an artist and has written children’s books, plays, children’s music albums, and a TV program. Ran holds a Master’s degree in Education from Ben Gurion University, a B.Ed. in Early Childhood Education from the David Yellin Academic College of Education, and studied Organizational Consulting and Development at the Ofek Institute in Tel Aviv.

ran@earlystarters.org

Sarah Wilner is a special education teacher and trainer with over a decade of high-level experience in Israel’s MASHAV Carmel International Training Center. She established a national early childhood education system in Ghana in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, and trained educators in Nepal, Africa and Asia. She has a bachelors degree in psychology from McGill University, a Master’s degree in Sociology from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and a graduate certificate in group facilitation from Haifa University.

sarah@earlystarters.org

Yulie Khromchenco is an educator and facilitator, of change processes, and in the last 14 years has worked in implementing change in a various degrees in educational systems in Israel. She was the director of a leadership program for teachers in underserved communities and trained many teachers, supervisors and early childhood professionals. Her former career as a journalist and editor gives her an advantage in developing written materials and helping people to tell their stories.
Born in Moscow, Yulie is fluent in Russian. At the beginning of the war in Ukraine she joined Early Starters in creating safe education spaces for young children in Moldova – and now looks to expand this model to other places. She likes to learn new things and is curious about everything.

Yulie.khro@gmail.com

Natalie Silverlieb

Natalie is an International Community Development practitioner, with over seven years experience working across five continents. As a teaching artist and educator, Natalie has coordinated cross- cultural youth leadership programs across 20 countries, and developed curriculum and teacher training for arts integration in schools in India. She also established the local office for an INGO in Vanuatu, leading the team’s disaster response efforts and community based programs in WASH and MHPSS, in partnership with the World Bank, WHO, RCS, local leaders, national and international government. Natalie graduated Magna Cum Laude with a MA in International Development from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Noa Shefi

Noa is a drama therapist and a group facilitator for the last 25 years. Her passion for democratic and humanistic ideas lead her consulate and implement policy changing on local authorities, organizations and communities, national and international wide. Her work in developing and implementing a new childhood education governmental policy Is described in an article that was published in the Global Education Review. Her main field of interest is early childhood especially among children in poverty and at educational and emotional risk and for the last 3 years she manages a therapeutic center for family at risk. She worked in Ghana, Mallawi and in with Israeli communities from low scocio- ecomic background. Noa is a B.A. graduate in social theater and have a M.A. in creative arts therapy from Haifa university. Her academic studies and experience are reflected in her creative work.

Carmit Bartov

is an organizational consultant and a psychotherapist. She is specializing in progressive education and strategic consulting, working with governance executives, and supporting partnerships. She is a certified group facilitator with over 20 years of experience. Carmit has specialized, among other things, in training early childhood education teams in Israel and around the world. She has a Bachelor of Sociology and Political Science from Bar-Ilan University in Israel and M.Sc. in Organizational Behavior from Tel Aviv University in Israel. She is a certified group body movement facilitator and a graduate of the Biosynthesis therapy program at Broshim Campus, college of alternative medicine Tel Aviv University.

Yoav Lorch

Yoav Lorch had a rich career as a writer and story teller for children. He published six books, illustrated two, and wrote extensively for TV and theatre. He had his own story-telling program on Israeli TV, that was aired for over six years. Later on in life he became an entrepreneur, created three companies, and led each one from inception to global presence and sales, raising over $40 million in the process. Currently Yoav is the CEO of Total Boox, a company devoted to giving all people access to quality reading..

www.totalbooxcom

Yukhiko D’Lovette Amnon - Liberia

Yukhiko began her career in education right after the civil war in Liberia. She has worked as a teacher in pre-school and lower basic, (grades 1-6). At the Ministry of Education in Liberia, Yukhiko spearheaded the development of the National Intersectoral Early Childhood Development Policy and other Early Childhood Development related documents, as she served as the Assistant Minister for Early Childhood Education. Yukhiko is the founder of the Candlelight Christian Academy, an early childhood and lower basic (grades 1 – 6) school in Liberia, founding member of the African Early Childhood Network, AfECN and member of the World Forum on Early Care and Education.

Sahilu Baye - Ethiopia

I, Sahilu Baye is the founder of Enrichment Center for the Disadvantaged (ECD). I am a child development specialist with MA Degree in Child Development from the University of Haifa, MBA Degree in Project Management from Cambridge International College (CIC), BA degree in Psychology from Addis Ababa University, International Diploma in Project Management (IDPM) from the University of Cambridge & certificates from the University of Jerusalem and Mount Carmel International Training Center (MCTC).

Stanley K. Kamau - Kenya

Stanley K. Kamau is a Life Coach and Training Consultant in Education, Sports, Life –Social skills, Leadership as well as Business and Spiritual issues. He has been a Senior Lecture in Teacher Education at Murang’a Teachers college and worked as a sports coordinator at Kenyatta University Kitui Campus and a longtime Trainer and T.O.T in Government sponsored trainings in HIV/AIDS Life skill Behavior Change Programs.

Orit Efron

Orit is an expert in the early childhood field.

Over the years Orit owned her own kindergarten, ran a variety of kindergartens in the private and public sector, and taught First & Second grade.

She is a qualified life coach, with many experiences in guiding parents, and guiding educational teams during her job in the Ministry of Education & during her job in the Democratic Institute.

Orit writes content & educational programs, lectures and gives workshops, trains educational teams and parents.

She holds a B.A in Education & Sociology at the Hebrew University, a personal training certificate from Bar Ilan University, and a M.A in Educational Counseling from Ramat Gan College.

Asaf Gad Gon

Asaf is a man with a big smile on his soul and with endless dreams in his head. Asaf has been working for more than 20 years in the fields of creativity. In the last 10 years Asaf has been working with early childhood education headquarters, teams, training and mentoring them. Asaf is a father of 3 and is A master in the field of playfulness, leading workshops on a more fun and flexible approach to life. Asaf is also a toy and game inventor, who sold games around the world.