RCMA- Executive Director

RCMA Executive Director

Contact:

Barbara Mainster
Executive Director
RCMA
402 W. Main St.
Immokalee, FL 34142

Tel: (800) 282-6540
Fax: (239) 658-3571
barbara@rcma.org

Barbara Mainster, who joined RCMA in 1972, was named executive director in 1988 and has been instrumental in extending RCMA’s services to children of migrant and low-income farm families throughout Florida.

When she joined RCMA, the association had three child care centers with 75 children in southern Miami-Dade County. Today, RCMA operates more than 75 centers and two charter schools in 21 Florida counties. With an enrollment of nearly 8,000 children, RCMA is the largest non-profit child-care provider in the state.

An advocate for farm workers and their families, Ms. Mainster often testifies before congressional and legislative committees and is a frequent visitor to legislative halls in Washington and Tallahassee. In April 2005, for example, she testified before a U.S. House subcommittee, stressing the need for increased Migrant Head Start funding. Most recently, during the Florida Legislature’s 2008 session, Ms. Mainster went door-to-door to several Florida lawmakers urging defeat of bills that would have unintended negative consequences for farmworker families.

Her expertise is often sought by childcare and farmworker oversight groups. To name just a few: Ms. Mainster served as vice chair of the Governor’s Advisory Council on Farmworker Affairs (1996-98); is a past president of the Florida Children’s Forum; and was appointed by Florida Gov. Jeb Bush to the Florida Farmworker Housing Coalition in 2000.

Ms. Mainster also serves on Florida’s Reading and Literacy Partnership Committee and is a charter board member of Socially Accountable Farm Employers (SAFE), a nonprofit organization that provides independent auditing and certification of fair, lawful farm labor practices in the agriculture industry.

In 2007, Ms. Mainster was awarded the prestigious Nancy Thomas Award at the 21st annual One Goal Summer Conference of approximately 1,000 early childhood professionals in Tampa, Fla. This was among the latest of many state and national awards Ms. Mainster has received throughout her distinguished career.

As RCMA executive director, Mainster manages a $55 million budget and 1,500 employees.

Originally from upstate New York, Mainster received a Bachelor of Science degree in social sciences from Michigan State University in 1962 and studied anthropology in graduate school at Cornell University. After finishing her graduate work, Mainster served in the Peace Corps in Peru from 1964 to 1966 where she began a family planning project and taught preschool.

Mainster returned to New York and worked as a Head Start teacher-director and coordinator of early childhood education at a community college from 1967 to 1972. In October 1972, she moved to Florida and joined RCMA. She served as education coordinator (1972-75) and program coordinator (1975-88) before being named executive director in 1988.

Mainster is the mother of four children (three of whom are adopted) and has 11 grandchildren.