The President of the Loyola Early Learning Center, Father Bill Watters, S.J., has announced that LELC, located at 801 St. Paul Street, welcomes Ms. Candra Healy as the full-time Director of Development effective March 18, 2019. A very generous gift from the Knott Foundation has made this appointment possible.
Ms. Healy has more than 16 years of higher education experience in academic affairs.
Since 2008, she has been the Special Assistant/ Executive Assistant in the Dean’s Office of the School of Education at Loyola University Maryland. Prior to joining Loyola, Ms. Healy was a marketing and sales executive at Joseph E. Seagram & Sons, Inc. She received a BA in Business Administration and a MA in Liberal Studies from Loyola University Maryland.
Ms. Healy brings a wealth of experience and a professional skill set that will enhance the mission and goals of LELC.
As Director of Development, she will focus primarily on maintaining financial support for the children who depend on annual scholarships, funded by private individuals and foundations, to attend the school. In addition, she will be dedicated to the establishment of an endowment which will guarantee the school’s future.
Working at LELC will fulfill her passion for social justice and her dedication to the service of others, Ms. Healy said: “To provide inner-city preschoolers … with a Jesuit education is a mission I feel immediately connected with.”
The Loyola Early Learning Center opened in September 2018. A parish ministry of St. Ignatius Church, located at 740 N. Calvert Street next to Center Stage, LELC is a private, independent school governed by a Board of Trustees.
The school, which operates year-round from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., has joined the other four Jesuit schools in Baltimore: Saint Ignatius Loyola Academy (middle school), Loyola Blakefield (middle and high school in Towson), Cristo Rey Jesuit (high school) and Loyola University Maryland.
Presently, LELC has 37 students, all on full scholarships, and will accept another 20 children this September.
For the past two years, the Office of Development at LELC has been maintained by Ms. Mary Beth Orrson and Ms. Anne McLain.
Father Watters personally thanks both of them for their pro bono work, especially Ms. McLain who has been the Acting Director of Development for the last eight months and will be leaving LELC on March 29, 2019.