Eleanor Hirsh

Ellie Hirsh has lived and worked in St. Croix for more than forty years, enjoying a diverse career primarily focusing on young children and individuals with disabilities. She has worked for the Department of Education, planning and implementing the territory-wide Early Childhood Special Education Program for young children with disabilities and/or developmental delays and their families.

 

Her many other positions have included serving as assistant director of the University Center for Excellence on Developmental Disabilities at the University of the Virgin Islands, assisting in grant

writing, conducting numerous workshops, participating in advocacy efforts, and leading a team of

professionals to establish the Inclusive Early Childhood Education Associate and Bachelor’s

Degree programs, in which she taught for many years.

 

As a representative of the Regional Office for Head Start, she served as a training and technical assistant to the Virgin Islands Head Start and Early Head Start Programs. As the early childhood specialist at the Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands, Ellie led its early childhood initiative and served as the coordinator of the Governor’s Early Childhood Advisory Council, working with highly motivated and creative individuals who were also passionate about improving services to young children and families.

 

Along with her husband, Chris Finch, also a Museum board member, she has a consulting business and is now dedicating much of her time and energy to the Children’s Museum of St. Croix. She is the mother of two and grandmother of three, and includes among her hobbies collecting gently used books to give away, as well as hiking, walking, yoga and painting.