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Meg Franko
Early childhood systems, policy, and program researcher
Professional Background
Meg Franko is an accomplished professional in early childhood education research and evaluation, bringing an impressive twenty-five years of public policy experience to her work. Her career spans various levels — national, state, and local — giving her a comprehensive understanding of the early childhood systems that impact children and families. Meg has developed significant expertise in several key areas, including school readiness, kindergarten transition, and family engagement, helping her to shape policies and programs that cater to the needs of young learners.
As a leading member of the Research and Evaluation team at the Butler Institute for Families at the University of Denver, Meg is at the forefront of important projects that focus on early literacy and effective strategies for engaging families and communities to support children’s educational journeys. Her leadership in evaluation projects not only showcases her dedication to research but also her ability to collaborate with various stakeholders to improve early education systems.
Before her current role, Meg made substantial contributions by managing the evaluation efforts of Colorado's Early Childhood Councils initiative for the Colorado Department of Education. This role solidified her ability to lead complex evaluations that inform state policies and programs, emphasizing her impact on early childhood education across Colorado. Meg's consulting business further underscores her versatility and commitment, as she worked with public and nonprofit clients in conducting program and policy research and evaluation. Her services, including project management, strategic planning, and quantitative and qualitative data analysis, have been invaluable to numerous educational and human services organizations.
Education and Achievements
Meg's educational credentials reflect her strong foundation in both leadership and policy in the realm of education. She earned her PhD in Education Leadership and Policy from the University of Denver, which equips her with the theoretical background and analytical skills needed to drive effective educational reforms. In addition, Meg holds a Master of Science in Public Management & Policy from Carnegie Mellon University — a program renowned for its rigorous approach to public policy analysis and management.
Additionally, Meg earned a Bachelor of Arts in Drama and Psychology from Kenyon College, illustrating her diverse interests and skill sets. This unique combination of education in the arts and social sciences enriches her approach to engaging communities and families in supportive educational initiatives.
Notable Achievements
Throughout her illustrious career, Meg Franko has received recognition for her substantial contributions to early childhood education. As the founder and principal of ECE Insights, she has established herself as a thought leader in the field, advocating for research-driven policies that promote the well-being and development of young children.
Her previous roles reflect a deep commitment to education policy. As the Director of Research and Policy at Early Milestones Colorado, Meg played a crucial role in advancing early childhood education practices statewide. Furthermore, her tenure as a Research Associate Professor at the University of Denver's Graduate School of Social Work allowed her to mentor the next generation of researchers and policymakers, ensuring their understanding of critical education issues.
Meg's career also includes her significant role as the Director of Research and Evaluation at the Butler Institute for Families, where she led impactful evaluation projects. She served as a Senior Research Associate at the same institute, contributing to the understanding of family engagement and early literacy initiatives. Her expertise in managing projects has extended to serving as a Senior Consultant for the Colorado Department of Education, where she played an essential role in improving early childhood education evaluations throughout the state.
In addition, she has held influential positions such as Council Manager at the Denver Early Childhood Council and Manager of Communications and Community Relations at the Regional Air Quality Council, showcasing her ability to navigate complex community issues and policies. Meg began her career as a Policy Analyst at the Regional Air Quality Council, laying the groundwork for her understanding of the interconnectedness of various public policy sectors.
With a strong focus on community collaboration, strategic planning, and data analysis, Meg is well-equipped to tackle the challenges of early childhood education and public policy. Her passion for education and dedication to improving family engagement in early learning processes shine through in her work.
Meg continues to inspire and lead within the early childhood education field, ensuring that children, families, and communities have access to the reso
Highlights
There are many ways to be a leader.
I was reminded of this recently in a discussion about Malcolm Gladwell’s "Tipping Point" (a great read if you haven’t had the chance to dig into it yet).
Are you a Connector? If you make change through your connections with people and your ability to bring them together, you very well may be!
Or maybe you are a Maven! If you lead with ideas and information, this could be you. You love data and research and bring it to the table to create change in the world.
Or you could be a Salesperson. Not necessarily in the traditional economic sense, but as a persuader. If you are great at bringing people around to new ideas or approaches to a problem, this just could be you.
Whatever kind of leader you are, lean into it! Embrace your unique style and lead from wherever you are.
Have you ever felt like you were a fraud, despite having years of education and experience in your field?
These feelings of self-doubt and inadequacy, often called “imposter syndrome,” are common, especially among high achievers. Ironic, right? The folks with the most training, credentials, and expertise are often more likely to feel like they are faking it!
I get it! I’ve been plagued by the imposter monster most of my life. I’ve found that facing this critic head-on is the best strategy. Once I acknowledge it’s there, I can start to do something about it.
Here are some useful tactics for quieting the imposter monster’s loud voice: • Create a cast of strength-based characters in your head to it drown out. If you are familiar with the “Inside Out” movies, you get the idea. Give these characters names and personalities to visualize them overtaking the imposter monster. • Make a list of your strengths and abilities and keep that nearby. Post it next to your computer or keep a list on your phone to refer to when negative self-talk starts to take over. • Talk with a trusted mentor, coach, or friend who can reflect more objectively on your skills and abilities. • Recognize how normal and common this feeling is. Some studies show that over 80% of people have experienced the imposter monster. Normalizing it can reduce its power.
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Mesh is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Mesh centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
- Smart Search: Allows you to search using natural language like "People I know at the NYT" or "Designers I've met in London"
- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Mesh's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Mesh isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Mesh instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Mesh is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Mesh can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.