Toscha Blalock

Toscha Blalock is an educator and researcher with extensive experience in the leadership, administration, and evaluation of early childhood education programs and systems. Serving as one of Trust for Learning’s co-directors and Chief Learning and Evaluation Officer, Toscha uses her professional expertise and unique life experiences to develop and support individuals, programs, and networks to faithfully and nimbly adopt ideal learning practices.

As one of the first employees of the Pennsylvania Key in 2003, Toscha was involved in the development and implementation of the child care quality standards for Keystone STARS, the statewide quality rating and improvement system (QRIS). She is a trained Environment Rating Scales (ERS) and Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) assessor and was the Program Quality Assessment Supervisor for the greater Philadelphia region for nearly ten years. Toscha has also held research associate positions at Public Health Management Corporation (PHMC), Temple University, and the University of Pennsylvania’s Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE). Toscha joined Maternity Care Coalition in 2015 as the Senior Director of Early Head Start, where she was the grantee/administrator of a federally-funded early education program serving families and children with high-impact results. She holds a master’s degree in Organizational and Strategic Leadership from Neumann University and an undergraduate degree from Temple University.

Toscha has been married to her amazing spouse, Marshall, for over 30 years and is mother to Malek, now a young adult. She was deeply impacted by her own upbringing by a single mother along with the support of a loving extended family. She attended Head Start as a child, has lived experience in breaking the cycle of poverty, and is committed to improving the quality of life for children and families, especially in underserved black and brown communities.