Fiona Stewart, executive director of development and advancement for Pacific Oaks College & Children’s School, has devoted her career to early childhood education, first as a preschool teacher, then as a program director of a childcare center, and as a grant and program director for early childhood quality improvement and professional development systems, as she sought ways to expand her reach in the field. “When you’re working with a classroom of children, you’re really impacting those children and those families’ lives,” Stewart says. “I did that for 10 years and then asked myself how I could have more of an impact at a systems level.”
Stewart received her master’s degree in human development at Pacific Oaks College and joined the staff, eventually assuming the role of director of grant administration for five years. Her efforts included raising funds for the college and Pacific Oaks Children’s School and managing federals grants, including those that she helped to secure.
It was the Eaton Fire in Los Angeles County in early 2025 that brought Stewart back to Pacific Oaks. She is a resident of Altadena, one of the communities hardest hit by the blaze. “My house did not burn down, but it was such a huge impact to my community,” she says. “And when the opportunity came to come back to Pacific Oaks and manage a large grant project focused on recovery for childcare, it was a nice blend of my passion for the field, wanting to make a difference for childcare providers but also helping with the recovery from such a devastating event.”
Those efforts led to what Stewart says is a natural progression into her current to continue overseeing the entirety of development and advancement across the institution with grant writing, donors, fundraising, and alumni relations as part of what she calls “a small but mighty team of me.”
Stewart is also working to strengthen relationships with Pacific Oaks alumni. She has launched a new alumni newsletter and is working with the alumni association to find ways for graduates to reconnect with the college and one another. She also hopes greater engagement will lead to increased alumni giving, noting that while some alumni already give generously, the overall percentage of donors remains relatively low.
Stewart says it is an exciting time to be back at Pacific Oaks though acknowledges the headwinds currently facing higher education. “A big challenge right now is students facing the costs of higher education in a time when what’s being considered a professional degree is evolving, financial aid is more challenging at a time when the future feels uncertain to many,” she says. Stewart says a major goal for the college is to increase funding available for scholarships by 5% this year.
A key part of Stewart’s efforts is finding ways to ease the financial burden on students. In addition to increasing scholarship funding, she is pursuing funding that could provide stipends for students completing required clinical and field placements, which are often unpaid. For students who must reduce their work hours or stop working to complete those requirements, Stewart says that support could help them stay enrolled and persist toward their degrees.
Looking to the future, Stewart is hoping, with input from the Pacific Oaks community, to put together an advancement strategic plan to guide the college and the children’s school forward through difficult times and to be intentional about what that progress looks like. “At the same time,” she says, “Pacific Oaks is an organization that has always focused its work on people, on children, on families, on mental health, on the well-being of individuals, children, family, and society. That’s a need that’s not going to go away.”
