After working for 23 years at the not-for-profit Childcare Council of Nassau Inc., which is located in Franklin Square, Gloria Wallick, the Chief Executive Officer, will retire at the end of September.

Wallick began her work in the childcare field in the mid-60s when the need of childcare programs on Long Island was due to the influx of women in the workplace. Wallick chaired the Policy Advisory Committee of Head Start and then worked to help set up the Rose Lee Young Childhood Center, which was a full-day daycare program for children. When the center was opened in 1972, with four children enrolled, Wallick was president of the board of directors there for six years.

About ten years later, in 1978, Wallick began working for the Day Care Council of Nassau in 1978 and became president in 1980, a position she held for eight years.

When she started, major funding for the center had recently stopped and during Wallick's first term as president, money was so scarce she had to get a loan from the bank just to make payroll. Throughout the years, the Council grew and, since Wallick has been there, the Child Care Council of Nassau Inc. quintupled its budget and has become Long Island's leading agency for childcare services to parents and providers. The Council has also started a referral service for parents to call when looking for childcare in their neighborhood, offers training sessions for people interested in childcare for children under the age of 5 because classes and programs for that field are almost non-existent on Long Island, offers seminars in the workplace about childcare, and gives consultation on establishing on-site child care centers and adding input to legislation on childcare in New York State and Nassau County.

Besides being very active on the Child Care Council of Nassau Inc., Wallick has also been extremely involved in many other projects involving childcare. She participated on the Nassau County Task Force on Day Care in the 1980s, which helped create a salary increase for childcare workers in order to entice more people into the field. Wallick also helped change the local zoning laws to allow daycare centers to run out of people's homes and to allow daycare centers in commercial areas in Oyster Bay. She also had a part in setting up childcare programs for employees in school districts during the early 1990's. More recently, Wallick was named to the Nassau County Legislature's Commission on Child Care, which was established out of her persistence.

Wallick also had a great influence on a series of articles that ran in Newsday entitled, Daycare Kids at Risk: How Oversight Fails our Children. "I helped the reporting team uncover negative aspects of childcare programs over a two year span, but I didn't want the series to scare parents, into not using daycare on Long Island," said Wallick. She made sure that the reporters included sidebars in the series that pointed out good childcare programs and centers for parents to enroll their children in. The series of articles also got a response from the government which helped lead to the passing of the "Quality Child Care and Protection Act" in the State Legislature in 2000. The bill ensures inspections of daycare facilities and criminal history record check of child care employees.

Wallick has also received numerable awards for her advocacy in childcare from county, state and local agencies. She will still continue to serve on several committees including the Hofstra University Saltzman Center Advisory Board, Nassau Citizens Budget Committee and Women on the Job after her retirement goes into effect.

Wallick received her undergraduate degree from Brown University and a Masters degree in Policy Analysis from the New School of Social Research, now known as the New School University. When she retires, Wallick plans to do a lot of traveling by herself and with her family. She has already taken four of her grandchildren to Alaska so that they could experience it with her. "I love seeing all the places that most people don't go," she said.

Right after her retirement goes into effect, she is leaving to spend two weeks in China. Besides traveling, Wallick is looking forward to spending more time with her four children and six grandchildren who all live close by. She also wants to take more time to go to museums and explore New York City.