Cassandra G. Nelson was born and raised in a small town (Bartow), Florida. She attended high school at Perth Amboy High School in Perth Amboy, NJ for two years and graduated. She then attended Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ earning a Bachelor's of Arts degree in Business with an emphasis on microeconomics.  

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While attending college, each summer Cassandra worked summer intern jobs at the Department of Navy in Crystal City, Va. Shortly after college she a full time job at the Internal Revenue Service in Washington, DC as an Economist. There she gained valuable business experience. 

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She quickly rose to high level GS position providing expertise to revenue agents seeking arm's length pricing for good and services provided primarily by foreign multinational corporations to their US subsidiaries. 

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Gaining a good understanding of business practices and strategic planning by the early 1980's, Cassandra teamed with a good friend, who was a prolific pencil artist. She used her business knowledge and skills, along with his talent and passion for his craft, to start an art business. In two years, they were generating over million dollars in art sales. This was not considered small change during this period of time. 

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By the Mid 1980's John Nelson (Artist) and Cassandra were united as one. John and Cassandra Nelson went on to birth two daughters, April and Kristyl Nelson. 

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Revenue earned from the lucrative art business was invested in Real Estate and Cassandra created a real estate business. In a span of 5 years, she had acquired approximately 60 units of apartment and houses in Washington, DC and the Maryland Suburbs. These properties were owned and managed by the Nelsons however with the proliferation of drugs and violence in the city during the early to mid-1990, Cassandra sold most of the properties to embark upon a life-long passion to work with children. 

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Shortly after liquidating most of the properties, Cassandra and John used the proceeds to acquire a failing childcare center which was re-named, after acquisition, to New Horizon Child Development Center, Inc. Soon after acquisition, the child care was organized as a non-profit Maryland corporation. The business background of Cassandra and the artistic talents of John turned New Horizon into an instant success story. 

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With a change in policy and procedures and a new look in the facility, marketing materials, and corporate identity and branding, the organization quickly grew from 50 children in one location to 600 children in four locations, two in Prince Georges County and two in Charles County. This was mainly accomplished with the help of a motivated Sta _ that became renewed by the new leadership of Cassandra and John Nelson. The primary mission of the organization was to provide quality services to economically disadvantaged and underprivileged children and families and, to provide them the same level of education and services that a child and family of a more affluent community is afforded. 

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Cassandra, as Co-Founder and Executive Director took the organization to new heights with the addition of new programs and community collaborations. Shortly after opening she obtained approval from the USDA's Child and Adult care food program for the organization to get reimbursed for all meals served in the center according to their nutrition guidelines. In addition to childcare, she gained approval from the Maryland State Department of Education to conduct a private certified Kindergarten program. This certification was later expanded to provide 1st — 3rd grade education that was recognized by any public school in the state of Maryland as well as nationwide. 

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Cassandra engaged the organization in numerous collaborations with other community organizations to provide Head Start in the facility and provide wrap around services (before & after care) for children of working parents whose work hours extended beyond the head start hours. Other community outreach efforts involved partnership with Success in Math Center, Dr. Mary Johnson to provide low cost after school tutoring services for underprivileged children. This lead to a major approval from the Department of Education for New Horizon to become a state authorized provider of tutoring services for underachieving students. 

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This meant that the state funded our organization to provide tutoring services to those in need. With this funding the organization was able to provide services to many more students than without the funding. 

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Another element to achieving the goals and mission of New Horizon is Cassandra's knowledge and ability to write grants and proposals. Under her leadership, Cassandra has been able to bring millions of dollars into the organization which has be instrumental in providing the quality, at affordable prices, that New Horizon has been known for in the community over the years. 

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The level of quality has been recognized by childcare professionals with the achievement of Accreditation from the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). New Horizon was one of only 5% of childcare center in the state that achieved such notoriety. 

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By 2008, Cassandra and John embarked an opportunity that involved her spending considerable time on the island of Jamaica. There they used the business skills of Cassandra and the artistic skills of John to develop a world class boutique hotel resort on the Caribbean Sea. The resort was a resounding success and received high rankings on popular travel sites such as trip advisor and Expedia. 

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Cassandra was in the mist of talks with Jamaican authorities to use the resort to bring US day care teachers to Jamaica to help establish quality child care and train teachers. However, talks stalled after the economic collapses which affected Jamaica more than the US. By 2011 Cassandra relinquish her position with the New Horizon organization and focused on the resort until a large resort chain bought the resort from them. 

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Upon her return in 2012, her love for making children and family lives better prompted Cassandra and family members to form a management company, initially called CCM but later changed to Kiddie University. Collectively, they will use their knowledge and expertise to improve the quality of existing childcare centers and help others who are interested in starting new quality centers in the community. In addition, they will continue to build and grow their own childcare enterprise. 

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Kiddie University Capitol Hill was formed in 2015 serve as the prototype of new era of child development with an emphasis on early childhood STEM, nutrition, and foreign language. The vision is to bring the same level of program to other less affluent areas of the District of Columbia.