Gretchen Brogdon

Gretchen joined the HFA national office in 2023 with 25 years of experience in center-based care, parent and teacher education, and regional early childhood policy change. Behind the scenes, she has helped develop collaborative databases, managed federal and private grants, and built partnerships across sectors to improve policies and practices. Most recently, Gretchen was a program manager at an HFA affiliate in Colorado where she learned the gifts of the parallel process and reflective supervision. Gretchen loves digging into data spreadsheets as much as she loves connecting with people all across the country.

Gretchen earned a master’s degree in human development in a social justice framework from Pacific Oaks College NW in 2006. She is committed to dismantling systems of oppression and follows the saying, “Do what you can, where you are, with what you have.”

Gretchen currently lives with her sister in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, close to her parents. She was raised in the Midwest and has lived throughout the U.S. except for the Southwest. She is secretly afraid of the desert. She also has two teenage daughters, two dogs, and a cat. Any free moment she can find, she is outside in the garden. She can be pulled away for live music, hiking, camping, or an afternoon with her girls.