20 years placing nannies. A decade building what they were missing.
From 1996 to 2016, I placed nannies in homes across the Bay Area. Two patterns kept repeating: great nannies with nowhere to grow professionally, and great parents with no real way to evaluate the care their children received. In 2016, I founded TIFFAN to close both gaps at once — and that's been the work ever since.
In-home care is the quiet backbone of American childcare — and it deserves real standards.
"For 50 years, billions have gone into formal childcare centers. The gap between demand and access has barely moved. The reason is hiding in plain sight: most children under five spend time in home-based care, and that workforce has no recognized standards, no professional pathway, and no real visibility."
TIFFAN treats in-home childcare as central infrastructure, not a peripheral market. Nannies, in-home caregivers, family and friend caregivers, neighbors who pitch in — they are already meeting the country's largest childcare need. They've simply been doing it without recognition, training systems, or a credible pathway up.
Our mission is to increase the supply of high-quality in-home childcare providers — by professionalizing the people already doing this work, and by inviting new people to see in-home care as a real, viable profession with structure, dignity, and growth.
Two gaps. One solution.
Across 20 years of placing nannies and a decade leading TIFFAN, the same two breakdowns kept repeating in every conversation — one on each side of the door.
Great nannies — with nowhere to grow.
Caregivers across all levels of experience do remarkable, skilled work every day. But there's no recognized credential that captures it, no portfolio standard that travels with them between families, and no professional ladder for someone who wants to keep advancing.
The result: their expertise stays invisible. Their wages stagnate. Their work is treated as a job, not a profession.
Great parents — with no way to evaluate care.
Parents care deeply about who watches their children. But they're handed a thousand profiles and no consistent way to compare them. References vary. Credentials are scattered. Health, safety, and training records live in seven different places — or nowhere at all.
The result: families make one of the most important decisions of their lives on incomplete information.
Three principles that guide everything.
TIFFAN is built on what works in practice — not what sounds good in a brochure.
Concrete over inspirational
Every program answers one question: what does this get me? Faster hiring. Higher pay. Employer respect. Documentation that works. A credential families and agencies actually recognize.
Recognition over recruitment
Experienced caregivers are already doing the work. We're not offering them an opportunity to become something new — we're offering them proof of what they already are.
Standards everyone can trust
Real standards — aligned with national health & safety guidelines — applied consistently. So a TIFFAN credential means the same thing whether it's earned in San Francisco, Sacramento, or Sausalito.
A promise to each side of the door.
TIFFAN works for three audiences at once. Each one strengthens the others.
Your experience deserves recognition.
If you've been caring for children — as a placed nanny, a working caregiver, or a part-time helper — you've earned standing. We give you the portfolio, the training, and the credential that makes it official.
A clear signal of quality.
A TIFFAN-certified caregiver means consistent health & safety training, an agency-ready portfolio, verifiable records, and standards you can trust — so you can compare candidates on an apples-to-apples basis.
A scalable workforce model.
In-home care is where the bulk of children actually are. TIFFAN provides a credential framework that's ready to integrate with workforce policy, subsidy eligibility, and quality-rating systems — at city, state, and federal levels.
Meet the founder.
I'm a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who has spent the last 30 years inside the nanny industry. From 1996 to 2016, I placed caregivers in homes, trained agency staff, and advised families on what good care actually looks like. By 2016, after watching the same gaps go unaddressed year after year, I founded TIFFAN to do something about them.
I started TIFFAN because I couldn't keep matching extraordinary caregivers to homes without giving them a way to develop, grow, and be recognized — and I couldn't keep helping families hire without giving them a credible way to know what they were getting.
I come to this work with deep hands-on experience and an honest passion: every child deserves the best possible care, and the people providing that care deserve real professional standing.
- ✓Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), California
- ✓20 years placing nannies and advising families on in-home care (1996–2016)
- ✓Founder & Executive Director of TIFFAN since 2016
- ✓Curriculum architect for TIFFAN's certification programs
- ✓Bilingual program development (English / Spanish)
The people standing behind this work.
TIFFAN is guided by a small board and advisory circle bringing expertise in childcare policy, nonprofit operations, clinical practice, and family services. Full bios coming soon.
+ Advisor names coming soon
Whichever side of the door you're on — we built TIFFAN for you.
Caregivers: turn your experience into a recognized credential.
Families and partners: get in touch about what credentialing means for the children in your care.
We are not currently accepting applications, enrollment, or payment for programs. Please visit again for future updates, or contact us at info@tiffan.org with general questions