Press Release: 1/6/2026

Leading the Way: BCNC’s Kathy Cheng

 

Alyssa Haywoode

JANUARY 6, 2026

 

Kathy Cheng moved from Hong Kong to Boston when she was eight. She didn’t speak English, so she was enrolled in the bilingual program in Boston’s Josiah Quincy School. Although she didn’t know it at the time, this was one of the first steps that led her to a career of supporting young children and parents in culturally and linguistically diverse communities. 

“I had an awesome second-grade teacher, Ms. Chan,” Cheng says. “When I first came as an immigrant child, she gave me confidence, and she made learning so much fun.”

When Cheng was 16 years old, she worked in the central office of the Quincy School Community Council (now known as BCNC). Cheng knew she wanted to be a teacher, but she wasn’t sure what grade she wanted to teach, so she worked at Acorn, BCNC’s early childhood program, where she met the director of Acorn, Bernadette Davidson. 

This was another experience that would impact her future.

Years later, when Cheng had graduated from Lesley University and was working as a preschool teacher, she ran into Davidson, who encouraged her to come back to BCNC.

“Bernadette kept putting me into different jobs at BCNC. She would say, ‘Just try this administrative position for a year.’ Then the curriculum developer left, and Bernadette said it would be fun to work on the curriculum.” Davidson continued to ask Cheng to fill other administrative and teaching openings until it became clear that Davidson’s goal was to ensure that Cheng had the knowledge and experience to run Acorn.

“So more than being my supervisor, Bernadette was my mentor.”

Today, Cheng is the director of BCNC’s Acorn Center for Early Education and Care.

BCNC is a multifaceted agency that supports parents, young children, teens, and adults through various initiatives. It was “founded in 1969 by Boston Chinatown residents who sought to address the basic needs of the local community.” Since then, the organization has expanded beyond Chinatown and evolved to meet the changing needs of families. 

“We’re supporting the whole family,” Cheng says of BCNC. “We might have a child in Acorn, and have the child’s parents in the adult education program where they’re learning English or getting workforce training. There might also be an older sister or brother who is part of the Youth Center or enrolls in the Red Oak After-school Program. 

 

For Cheng, the work is also personal.

“Growing up as an immigrant child, I saw the struggles my parents faced and the struggles I faced. I know that if we don’t help children at a very young age, research shows that by the time they get into third grade, they really will have a hard time with literacy and communication.”

As a leader, Cheng has sharpened her skills by supervising English- and Chinese-speaking teachers. While she could speak Chinese, she benefited from the support of a colleague, Lai Chan, Acorn’s assistant director, who helped her improve her reading, writing, and ability to translate from English to Chinese. Lai is also a role model for Kathy in team building and supporting teachers with cultural sensitivity. More than a colleague, Lai has become Kathy’s lifelong, family friend.

“I learned that there’s no one set way to supervise people. You must look at people’s individual experience, background, and education, and you have to be flexible.”

Half of her staff have been at Acorn for more than 25 years. 

There have, of course, been challenges.

Before the pandemic, some parents were hesitant to seek help for their children’s behavioral needs. Since the pandemic, those needs have increased. One silver lining is that, because parents spend more time with their children, they are more aware of their developmental needs, and they are now more likely to ask for help.

“We have a full-time Family Engagement Coordinator who works closely with our families, supporting them by helping them advocate for their children and break through barriers; because we see cases where a parent is open to services, but then they get pressure from their families or friends who say, Oh, no, no, don’t get services. If you sign up for services, your child will have a label for the rest of their lives. Or sometimes a parent gets blamed: You must have done something wrong during your pregnancy. So, we work with families to make sure their children get services so they can thrive.”

Another challenge is recruiting and retaining staff. Acorn’s administrators are aging, and there has been turnover among teachers who recognize they can earn more by teaching in public schools or pursuing other professions. This means there are fewer experienced teachers who can serve as mentors for newer teachers. This makes it essential to develop a pipeline for staff growth and to eventually prepare staff for leadership roles.

“I talk to other directors, and they say the same thing: it’s hard to attract people to the field right now, both administrators and teachers. As a dual-language program, Acorn provides instruction in both Chinese and English to its students, so we seek both native English-speaking and native Chinese-speaking teachers. Native Chinese-speaking teachers must be proficient in Chinese and have a working knowledge of English, as well as the ability to read, write, and translate materials for families. Thank goodness for Urban College of Boston. They offer early childhood courses in Chinese.”

Cheng also provides her teachers with culturally appropriate training programs in English and Chinese.

“For children to thrive,” she says, “We need to invest in teachers’ salaries, in their education, and their professional development.”

Ask Cheng what policymakers should know about her work, and she quickly says that policymakers are already listening. She praises the state’s Commonwealth Cares for Children (C3) grants for providing funds to licensed programs, like Acorn, which uses the funds to increase staff salaries, which in turn improves staff retention. The next step for Massachusetts, Cheng says, is to provide enough behavioral health support services for all the children who need them. For now, however, children’s needs exceed the support that’s available. 

What everyone should know about Cheng’s work is how much she enjoys working with children.

“You walk into the toddler classroom. They open their arms. They give you a big hug. They let you know that they appreciate you.”

“Or I go into a classroom, and the preschoolers want me to read five stories, so I read to them. And I see that the teachers have the right professional training, the necessary resources, and everything they need to work effectively with the children. Most importantly, the children are thriving and happy. They’re growing at their own pace. They love coming to school.

“And years later, some families returned to thank me for the positive differences we had made in their lives. Since Acorn has been in operation for over 50 years, every year, we have one or two families whose parents attended Acorn years back and are now bringing their own children back to BCNC. They want their children to have the same experience: nurturing teachers, a safe and fun learning environment, and neighborhood friends.

“The icing on the cake is our beautiful facility, the first green building in Chinatown. Two summers ago, we renovated all the classrooms. We recently installed a new security system, and we have renovated our rooftop playground.”

“I know I’m blessed in my career. I grew up in the community, and now I can give back to it—and I have a great team working with me.”