Sia Barbara Ferguson Kamara retired in 2008 after 21 years as Administrator of the District of Columbia’s Department of Human Services/Office of the State Superintendent of Education Early Care and Education Administration.  Served four Mayors in Washington, DC.  

President Jimmy Carter appointed her Associate Commissioner in the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services with responsibility for the National Head Start Program, the Appalachian Regional Commission Child Development programs, child care regulations, research and demonstration programs.  She managed a one-billion-dollar budget.

Kamara is currently an international early childhood systems consultant with the Open Society Foundations’ Early Childhood Program and the Ministry of Education in Liberia.  Liberia work: co-developed national curriculum for pre-school teachers; assisted six colleges in establishing early childhood departments; facilitated 20 Liberians to obtain early childhood master’s degrees.    

A two-year Peace Corps volunteer in Liberia, 1963-1965. Kamara holds a BS in mathematics and economics from Johnson C. Smith University and an MS from Bank Street College in New York. 

Selected Honors, Awards and Memberships

2019 – Embassy of Liberia Honoree

2017 – Nimba County Community College in Liberia named campus school Sia Barbara Ferguson Kamara

2011 – present, Friends of Liberia

1983 – present, Faith United Church of Christ

1961- present, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority