Nicole Cameron named executive director of Metropolitan Family Services DuPage

Nicole (Nikki) Cameron was recently named as executive director of Metropolitan Family Services DuPage.

Previously serving as interim executive director since January, Cameron will lead the center in providing a wide variety of human services designed to promote the well-being of the nearly 22,000 individuals and families Metropolitan serves across DuPage County.

In this role, Cameron brings a strategic lens to empowering families through integrated program and service delivery, looking outside the box to guide staff in ways to approach service integration more broadly in order to serve clients more effectively and holistically. Additionally, she leads Metropolitan DuPage's extensive partnerships with the greater DuPage community, which have been an essential part of the center's success and span the public and private sectors.

Before serving as interim executive director at Metropolitan DuPage, Cameron was Director of Early Learning Programs for all of Metropolitan Family Services, leading agency-wide Early Childhood Education services since 2018. Prior to that, she served as head of Metropolitan DuPage's ECE programs from 2012-2018. During her tenure in these leadership roles, Metropolitan's early learning programs have doubled in number. A member of Metropolitan's Strategy & Innovation Team, Cameron also staffed Metropolitan's Head Start Oversight Board, working with agency Vice Chairman David Tropp. In addition, she has developed strong and trusted relationships with many DuPage County funders and partners.

Her leadership has led to exceptional results in all federal reviews, and with the achievement of National Association for the Education of Young Children accreditation for some of Metropolitan's center-based programs. In addition, she has coached several of her team to further their education in early childhood education. Working collaboratively with clinical services in DuPage, Cameron has developed basic mental health training and case consultation for her staff. Additionally, she has spurred intentional integration with behavioral health services and with domestic violence services, as the team discovers more and more domestic violence in the ECE population.

Highly respected by internal and external constituents, Nikki is often sought to participate in boards, committees and problem-solving groups across DuPage County and the state of Illinois. She is a governing member of the DuPage County Early Childhood Education Collaborative, which seeks to plan for changes in ECE, fill service gaps, improve quality in various ECE settings, and break down silos that exist between programs. Her expertise was also recognized internally, as a 2018 Metropolitan Employee Awards winner, receiving the Betty Williams Award for Community Efforts. She started at Metropolitan in August 2012, serving in various roles including associate director of Metropolitan's Early Learning Programs, School Readiness Director and Quality Assurance Supervisor. Before joining the MFS team, she worked with other Head Start/Early Head Start programs for 11 years.

Cameron earned a B.A. in Family, Child and Nutritional Sciences from Northern Illinois University, and an M.S. in Early Childhood Education from Roosevelt University. In 2008, she secured a Professional Educators License in Early Childhood Education with a Special Education Endorsement. She also earned ESL Certification from National Lewis University in 2017.