Greenbriar Children’s Center, a non-profit in Savannah with 73 years of providing services to children and families, has announced that Jennifer McMichael has been appointed as the Director of Early Childhood Education and Care. 

Ms. McMichael holds a B.A. from the University of Northern Iowa and an MSW from Savannah State University. Prior to joining Greenbriar, Ms. McMichael served as a Zone Manager with Child Care Resource & Referral of Southeast Georgia (CCR & R). CCR & R utilizes a team approach to help families, early child care educational professionals, and community members to help facilitate safe, high quality, learning environments. They also provide state approved trainings and professional development opportunities for child care providers throughout the 40 county region.

“We are thrilled to have Ms. McMichael join our team in this newly created position”, said Gena P. Taylor, Executive Director of Greenbriar. “She brings a wealth of experience to this role, and will guide us well as we continue to focus on our strategic plan of expanding early childcare and educational opportunities for families in Chatham County.”

Greenbriar operates two early learning centers in Chatham County for children ages 6 months to five years, located at Windy’s Preschool at 429 Tattnall Street and at WW Law Early Learning Center at 909 East Bolton Street. Both centers are quality rated, and Windy’s also provides a FREE Georgia Pre-K program. Both programs provide two hot nutritious meals per day, as well as a snack, and also utilize the CAPS (Childcare and Parent Assistance program) to help parents afford childcare. Greenbriar also provides scholarships to those in need.

“Despite the challenges of the pandemic over the last few years, Greenbriar has seen recent enrollments in both of our centers climb”, added Ms. Taylor. “We graduated our Pre-K program just last month, and this summer, we added a Summer Transition Program, also known as STP, to provide additional educational opportunities for children who did not have the benefit of attending a Pre-K program. We are looking forward to expanding our programs this Fall, and we encourage those in the community who wish to enroll their children to do so early as we are anticipating high demand in our area. We are excited to have Ms. McMichael help us to advance our mission.”