Laterria Lassiter

Laterria is a program manager for the NC Home-based Child Care Initiative (HBCC) at MDC. Shortly after Laterria began her career in early childhood education and childcare, she experienced disparities in full-time childcare compared to other professions. She spoke up about low wages, lack of benefits, unfair contracts, and systemic poverty within the childcare profession.

Her voice got the attention of the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) and in 2018 she was trained in organizing, communication, political education, and childcare policy through their leadership development fellowship. She worked one-on-one with state organizers in NDWA, served on committees, and was a lead organizer in North Carolina. She continued her work at the national level, working directly with alliance members on conflict resolution strategies & membership-related communications. Laterria received numerous awards and recognition for her work in building the We Dream in Black chapter in Charlotte, NC.

During the pandemic, Laterria opened her family home as a homeschool location and later, as a licensed, state-regulated home-based child care facility. As a small business owner, she saw firsthand the challenges of operating home-based childcare and began to focus on the agencies, policies, and regulations that make it difficult to operate home-based childcare. Laterria’s experience as a home-based childcare provider, in addition to her background in early childhood education, provides the empathy and perspective to connect and build relationships with childcare providers and caregivers across the state as the program manager for the Haven Provider-Leader Program of MDC’s HBCC initiative.