 | Nedra Sims Fears, Business Development Specialist
2/16/2010 9:59 AM | | Nedra Sims Fears |
As a Special Projects Coordinator Nedra Sims Fears advises early education and care business owners about how to improve their business practices and space planning. Nedra has more than 20 years of experience in community development, mortgage banking, secondary mortgage market, construction management and interior architecture. Nedra has a M.B.A. in finance from Northwestern University and a B.S. in interior architecture from Cornell University. As a mid-career professional she completed the Harvard Loeb Fellowship program at the School of Design architectural school. Nedra built a healthy and green house when she lived in Michigan. She recently wrote two children’s books. Married, Nedra seldom gets air time at home because of her two talkative teen and pre-teen daughters.
How did you get involved with First Children’s Finance?
I met Jerry at a community development conference in Washington, D.C. He introduced himself. Then I ran into Jerry in Chicago and Minneapolis. It was serendipity. I was a mortgage banker doing single and multi-family financing in both the public and private sectors. I‘ve been with First Children’s a year and a half.
Why is First Children’s important?
In mortgage finance, you get great economies of scale when you go after a niche market. Child care centers are a niche market for us. We’re able to deliver a quality lending product tailored to the customer, so they get a good return on investment. I’m now heading a new multi-service project in Detroit, MI. We’re moving to a holistic early education approach where we work with other organizations in certain neighborhoods. The Kellogg and Skillman foundations are funding us.
What difference does the Growth Fund make for providers? Why does First Children’s have a Growth Fund?
Providers see themselves as educators first, entrepreneurs second. We give them the skills to become better business managers. The result is their businesses become sustainable, allowing them to provide better services. I had an amazing experience with one of our clients whose center was facing financial difficulty. We helped the director analyze her classrooms and identify where the center was losing money. We then helped her figure out ways to short up the losses. The center is still open.
What’s your vision for First Children’s?
I want to help centers, especially those serving low-income children, look at new ways to maximize their revenue and become more sustainable over the long run. For example, a great gym or large common room could become a revenue producing asset if it were rented out for private gatherings and community events.
What do you like to do when you aren’t working on behalf of First Children’s?
I have two wonderful daughters, 11 and 15, who are in gifted programs. They are really quirky kids, so I read everything I can about children and their development. I fell in love with early care and education. For me, First Children’s allowed me to bring my two passions together – education and finance. And that’s what gets me up in the morning. I also wrote a book for gifted tween girls.
What else would you like our readers to know about you and First Children’s?
I have an identical twin. Based on the Western idea of chronology, she is older. Based on African thought, she is the younger. The older one would push the younger one out, and if it’s ok, then she would follow.
| |
