Stephanie Schmit is CLASP’s director of child care and early education. Her work focuses on the intersectional needs of families and the foundational role that child care plays in helping meet them through federal and state policy analysis and state implementation of federal programs.

Stephanie has expertise in state and federal child care and early education policy, home visiting, data analysis, and maternal mental health. She has worked at CLASP for over ten years, having served as a policy analyst and senior policy analyst on CLASP’s child care and early education team prior to her current role.

Before joining CLASP, Stephanie worked at the National Center for Parents as Teachers in St. Louis, focusing on policy and advocacy for young children and in direct practice doing home visits through an early childhood program in Cincinnati, OH. She has a B.A. in Social Work from the University of Cincinnati and a MSW from Washington University in St. Louis.