Meet The Founders

The Daycare Advantage story begins in 2002, when James and Jennifer met while earning their Masters Degree in School Leadership. After completing the Masters Program both James and Jennifer continued their graduate studies by pursuing their Doctorate degrees. During their doctoral studies, they were engaged, married, and started a family. They would later become the first married couple in the history of Wilmington University's Doctoral Program to graduate together and in January 2005, they became Drs. James and Jennifer Lavender.

In their personal struggle to balance (and afford) work, school, and family, the couple realized that there was virtually no assistance for families in their stage of parenthood. As college students for many years, they realized that multiple avenues of financial and other assistance were available to them; however, there weren't any assistance programs available to families with younger children. At the same time, a growing body of research was indicating the paramount importance of high quality versus low quality childcare. James's experiences as Director of Early Childhood Education also raised their awareness about issues surrounding the academic needs of young children.

The couple brainstormed ideas to help reduce the cost of childcare for their young daughters while maintaining program quality. As a result, they created a system that better identified quality programs and assisted with daycare tuition and other family-related costs. Drs. James & Jennifer Lavender, professional educators with 21 years experience in teaching and leading school districts, founded Daycare Advantage in 2006. Daycare Advantage diversified into the iCare Family of programs and today benefits millions of families nationwide.

Drs. Jennifer & James Lavender