North Marin child development program director wins North Bay Forty Under 40 award

“I have realized there is a big difference between being a leader and being in a position of leadership,” says Emily Bugos.

Bugos hopes to return to school and earn a doctorate in educational leadership.

The oldest of three children with a large and close knit extended family, Bugos was born and raised in Marin County and has lived in Novato most of her life.

Her job entails overseeing the North Marin Community Services early childhood education program and school-age enrichment program, a role she has been in for the past one-and-a-half years.

“Raising the value of child care work on a larger scale. It is a professional that is highly undervalued and often unrecognized as professional and respectable work. It is largely viewed as important only because it serves others in their ability to work. My challenge has been in strengthening the view of child care work as important in its own right. My hope is that, as this view changes and people in positions of power begin to view child care work as a valuable form of education and an economic necessity, the wages of our workforce will be reflective of the important work that we do.”

In a business sense, what is the greatest thing about being under 40; and then what is the worst?

“The worst is that people tend to expect less with regard to your abilities based on an assumption that your age hasn’t allowed you “enough” experience.“

“The greatest is that you get to flip those expectations around and surprise them. Being young in a field that is always evolving allows me to evolve with it. It has stopped my practice as an educator from becoming stagnant and allows me to continue thinking innovatively.”