History

Mile High Early Learning was incorporated in 1972 with the mission to provide safe, affordable childcare for the children of low income families while they pursued training and schooling to attain self-sufficiency.

Following a merger with Mile High United Way settlement houses in 1973, the organization became known as Mile High Child Care.

Over almost 50 years of operation, Mile High Early Learning’s programs and scope of services have evolved in response to research on brain development and the critical impact of the early years on a child’s lifelong ability to learn and flourish. However, Mile High Early Learning’s ongoing focus on the need for quality early childhood education and care for Denver’s most under-resourced children and helping their parents understand the importance of their involvement in their children’s care and education remains unchanged.

Anna Jo Haynes,
Mile High Early Learning President Emeritus

Anna Jo Haynes

Anna Jo Haynes is both a product of and a champion for Colorado education, especially when it comes to the state’s youngest and most vulnerable children. As the executive director of Mile High Early Learning for four decades, she played a key role in the creation of programs and policies designed to meet the developmental needs of young children living in poverty while simultaneously overseeing the operations of one of the largest providers of subsidized early childhood care and education for low income children.

Anna Jo’s personal and professional paths have coalesced into a lifetime of service to others.  As President Emeritus, she continues to play a strategic role in the advocacy of early childhood care and education with a particular emphasis on parental involvement and the critical role parents play as their child’s first teacher.