Growing up in Tuskegee, Alabama, which ranked among one of the lowest-performing states in the country for education, Dr. Melanie Johnson learned early that systems alone are not enough to educate children.
It takes a village, as Johnson herself was once raised in.
“There were micro systems on our street, neighbors and teachers who told on you when you didn’t turn in your homework because that’s the beauty of small towns,” she told the Defender. “I learned my love for the sciences in those museums. I learned a lot from the Tuskegee Airmen [African-American military pilots who fought in World War II] who had flown the ‘Red Tails’ to countries and led us in the wars, and then I was fascinated by the Dr. George Washington Carver Museum.”
Today, as president and CEO of the Collaborative for Children, an early childhood education nonprofit, Johnson is working to recreate the same setting she grew up in at scale for Houston’s most vulnerable children.
The organization also received a contract with Houston ISD to expand its pre-K enrollment, under Senate Bill 1882. Johnson told the Defender it would help both entities. On the one hand, Collaborative for Children’s 125 early learning centers could help boost HISD’s enrollment numbers, and on the other hand, while Collab can count those students as part of their enrollment.
Leveling the playing field
Johnson’s path to early childhood leadership was interspersed with degrees and jobs in various fields.
After earning a Bachelor’s in International Business from Auburn University and a Master’s in Hospitality Management from the University of Houston, she began her career as an early childhood teacher. Johnson earned her Doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction from Texas Southern University in 2005.
It was there she fell in love with the authenticity of young children, kids who show up in cowboy boots and Superman costumes, being exactly who they wanted to be.
It led her to the boardrooms and exhibition halls of Houston’s science institutions.
As Director of Education at Space Center Houston, the official Visitor Center for NASA Johnson Space Center, she observed a troubling pattern.
Astronauts’ children eagerly raised their hands when asked about rocket boosters, while children from less science-saturated homes sat quietly overlooked.
Her response was to build programs specifically for the outliers, including “Diva Design,” a STEM initiative targeting middle school girls who were underperforming on State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) science assessments.
She later became president and CEO of the John P. McGovern Museum of Health and Medical Science (also known as the Health Museum) before joining Collaborative for Children in 2018.
The crisis of kindergarten readiness
According to a Good Reason Houston reporter, out of the students who were assessed for kindergarten readiness across the Houston region, Black and Hispanic students were less likely to be kindergarten-ready than their Asian and white peers.
For Johnson, those numbers represent a systemic and educational failure, rooted in the affordability of quality child care and cultural hesitancies around formal early enrollment.
“The adults are where the barriers lie more readily,” Johnson said. “A school district can be more welcoming. We don’t simply need parents to come in and bring cupcakes. We need parents to understand the criteria for success for their children.”
Her view is echoed by Michelle Atanu, founder and CEO of Avilo Pediatric Solutions & Consulting, who attended Collaborative for Children’s recent Collab Kid U STEAM event at Rice University with her family.
Atanu, an occupational therapist specializing in neurodiverse children, identified awareness and affordability as the central barriers.
“In communities of color, people just don’t know that this kind of stuff is out there. It’s up to the parent to go find them,” Atanu said she observed. “Organizations like Collaborative for Children do all the marketing, but the parents, the people of color, and underserved people, sometimes they don’t see it.”
Her advice to parents is to join their child’s school Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) and get connected.
Building the infrastructure for the future
Collaborative for Children, which has been operating in the Greater Houston area for over 35 years, runs its Centers of Excellence program to certify child care centers in high-need zip codes, equipping them with research-backed curriculum, STEAM-based activities, real-time data tracking, and business coaching.
Johnson said the organization is now expanding that model beyond formal child care walls, into community centers near low-income housing developments.
Collaborative for Children is pursuing agentic AI tools that would allow teachers and administrators to receive real-time alerts about a child’s developmental progress.
“We want to be there because we know that so many children don’t get early learning experiences that other children get,” Johnson added. “Our goal is to go where they are and to make sure that from prenatal all the way to kindergarten, there’s a continuity of care and data to monitor their progress towards success.”
The organization’s Collab Kid U event, which drew more than 700 families and educators, offered a glimpse of what early learning looks like in practice. Children explored coding stations and robotics, with parents present as active participants.
“The ultimate goal in terms of school readiness for a young child, aged three and four, is to be able to navigate the world socially and emotionally around them, outside of their home base, outside of their classroom, so that they can be successful.”
Dr. Melanie Johnson, President and CEO of Collaborative for Children
“What is most impactful about the Collab Kid U event is that children learn that exploring STEM and even the arts, STEAM, are incredibly fun activities because their parents are there to reinforce that these are amazing things to do,” Johnson added.
Johnson wants to be remembered for the impact of her work 10 years from now.
“If I were even able to give an opportunity to a handful of children to be able to partake in society in a way that’s as optimally beneficial for them and their families, that wards off the trajectory of poverty for a family, that would be sufficient for me,” she said.
