Michael Olenick

r. Michael Olenick has been the President and CEO for CCRC since 2003. He oversees all programs, projects, and services provided to over 50,000 children and families each month in a service area spanning 22,500 square miles. He is responsible for managing 1,000 staff and a $500 million budget. For more than three decades, Michael has served on numerous boards and committees at the county, state, and national levels. He is a past president of both Child Care Aware of America and the California Child Care Resource & Referral Network (CCRRN). He was a Governor’s appointee to the California State Advisory Council on Early Learning and Care and an appointee on the Speaker of the Assembly’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Early Childhood Education. Michael has been the chair of the Child Care Alliance for two years and serves on CA Child Welfare Commission in addition to serving on the Board of Directors of Zero to Three, the nation’s premier voice for babies.

He obtained his BA from the University of Illinois and a Master’s Degree from the Erikson Institute. After receiving his Master’s Degree, Michael taught for several years at the Chicago Child Care Society in Hyde Park, Illinois. He received his Ph.D. from UCLA writing his dissertation on, “The Relationship between Child Care Quality and Selected Social Policy Variables.” He taught childcare policy at the university level and served as a public policy instructor for the California Association for the Education of Young Children Leadership Program. Michael has been named for the fifth year in a row one of the 200 most influential people in the San Fernando Valley by the San Fernando Valley Business Journal.