New Candelen Board Chair Announced

July 7, 2020  |  Published by


Candelen, a nonprofit dedicated to championing children by providing services, resources, and support to adults impacting kids from ages 0 to 8 years, announced the appointment of Lindsay Olivarez as Chair of its Board of Directors. Olivarez, who joined the Candelen Board in 2015, succeeds Joanne Floth who served as Chair since 2017.

Lindsay Olivarez
Lindsay Olivarez

“It has been a great honor to have served as Chair of the Candelen Board of Directors,” said Floth. “I am incredibly proud of our accomplishments over the past six years. We have helped over 63,000 children gain positive beginnings and quality early education experiences by supporting more than 8,800 teachers, parents and caregivers per year. In addition, we’ve built one of the nation’s most recognized programs serving home-based family, friend and neighbor caregivers providing them the support to create safe environments and engaging early learning experiences for children in their care. I am confident in our future and in Lindsay’s leadership as we continue to grow and expand our impact.”

Lindsay Olivarez practiced law for over 10 years, first in the field of family law before transitioning to education law where she helped represent district and charter schools throughout the State of Arizona. Lindsay recently stepped away from her legal career to focus on raising her two young daughters and has relished the opportunity to serve as their primary teacher while bringing renewed energy and passion to her service to Candelen.

“I am honored to be in a position to help lead this incredible organization. Its mission and the values which frame its work are deeply meaningful to me both as an attorney who worked with schools impacting our state’s children, and as a parent. From my high school days as a volunteer for one of Candelen's programs, it is an honor and a privilege to have come full circle and to continue to be a part of the Candelen family.”

“This is a significant moment in the history of our organization. I’m deeply grateful to Joanne for her vision, dedication, and passion which led us to be one of the most impactful nonprofits for Arizona’s children,” said Nicole Newhouse, Candelen CEO. “Equally, I am excited for what the future holds under Lindsay’s leadership. Lindsay brings a wealth of strategic vision to our organization, which will be critical to our ability to grow our programs in Arizona and expand throughout the country.”

Candelen was founded in 1976 as a private, nonprofit corporation dedicated to shaping the future of Arizona by enhancing the quality of care for children. Every program at Candelen meets a unique set of needs within the child care and early education field. The foundation of brain development starts before birth and continues through adulthood. However, in the first few years of life, more than 1 million new neural connections are formed per second. Vision, hearing, language and higher cognitive function are at the peak of development from birth to five years old.

Candelen works passionately to ensure that young children have the foundation they need to lead happy, successful, productive lives. We are fueled by our core values of the relentless pursuit of challenge, excellence and humility to provide support, training, education, and professional development to the entire spectrum of those that care for and educate young children: parents, family, friends, neighbors, child care providers (both regulated and unregulated), early childhood educators, administrators, and leaders.

Madeleine Lovett

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