Mary-Frances Smith has been working with and for children over the past 25 years in school aged and mixed age early learning programs. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Special Education and is soon to graduate with a Master of Arts in Community Engagement. Her research focused on workforce stability in ELCC using a qualitative, community-engaged approach. Her pan-Canadian team of researchers published the Alberta Compensation Framework and her thesis, Nurturing the Nurturers: Understanding Support Systems for Early Childhood Educators in Alberta asked ECEs what they feel they need to feel supported. She hopes the thesis reveals the complex nature of ECE’s experiences by examining their motivations to enter and remain in the sector, giving voice and agency to their hopes and struggles, and providing policymakers with frontline solutions as we build a system of early learning and care.