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Welcome to the Pioneers in Health podcast. In this podcast, we share inspiring stories of pioneering leaders from our nation and from your backyard who are working to improve health.
In episode 62, we interview Joseph O’Hern, coalition and campaign manager for the First Five Years Fund. The First Five Years Fund works to protect, prioritize and build bipartisan support for quality child care and early learning programs at the federal level for children from birth through age 5.
Joseph is a long-time political campaign operative and strategist. He’s helped build political campaigns big and small from the ground up and has been a part of historic campaigns in some of the most competitive states in the country.
In this episode, he shares what led to a career in advocacy and focusing on early childhood issues. Originally from Iowa, he said you can’t escape politics living there.
“Every presidential candidate under the sun will roll through your state pretty regularly,” he said. “So I got involved in politics at a pretty early age and got pretty fortunate to actually work on the ’07, ’08 Iowa Caucus campaign, which got me hooked on campaigns and politics.”
He ended up working on a wide variety of campaigns all over the country, working everywhere from Mississippi to New York. Over time, he said, he saw the importance of advocacy and elevating issues that matter in people’s day-to-day lives.
In this episode, he also discusses:
- The First Five Years Fund’s mission
- Recent polling in Kansas
- What families said about the cost of childcare
- How Kansas voters view the role of state and federal government in childcare
- How voters want lawmakers to make childcare more affordable
- What gives him hope
And much more! Listen now, and learn more about how Joseph is an innovative leader in childcare.
Please see the Pioneers in Health page on our website for more information on our podcast series and links to other episodes.
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