At High Hopes, strong relationships begin with strong leadership. Our leadership team brings together experience in child care, family support, business operations, compliance, and working with children and families of all abilities.
We believe families deserve to know the people responsible for creating the environment where their children learn, grow, and are cared for each day. Our leadership team works closely with our teachers, caregivers, families, and community partners to ensure High Hopes remains a welcoming, inclusive, and supportive place for every child and family we serve.
While our leadership team brings different backgrounds and areas of expertise to High Hopes, we share the same priority: creating an environment where children are supported as individuals and families feel heard, respected, and welcomed.
Angela Lewman
Founder, Owner & Executive Director
Angela Lewman is the Founder, Owner and Executive Director of High Hopes. Her involvement in the special needs community began early in life. Growing up, Angela lived with a stepsister who had significant developmental and medical needs and attended the Polk County Special Education School in Balsam Lake, Wisconsin. In the early 1990s, Angela also volunteered for school field trips with her stepsister and other students from the school. Growing up in a family that included a child with significant needs gave Angela firsthand knowledge of how disability can affect not only the individual, but also siblings, parents and other family members.
That understanding took on a different meaning in Angela’s adult life when one of her children, Joshua, was born with Down syndrome and additional medical needs. Raising Joshua alongside her other children has given Angela the perspective of both a parent of a child with a disability and a parent watching siblings navigate the ways disability can affect everyday family life.
As a working parent, Angela also experienced firsthand how difficult it could be to find child care that was able and willing to care for a child with more complex needs. That experience played an important role in the development of High Hopes Child Care and its focus on providing an inclusive environment for children of all abilities. High Hopes Child Care opened its doors in January 2022.
In July 2025, High Hopes expanded its services with the launch of High Hopes at Home, providing in-home services for children and adults with disabilities.
Before moving into High Hopes full-time, Angela spent more than 25 years in the financial services industry, with much of her career focused on leadership, operations, compliance and team development. She now brings that experience to the business and administrative side of High Hopes, overseeing operations, compliance, finance and long-term planning.
Angela is also the Founder and Executive Director of the High Hopes Foundation, a nonprofit organization formed to support the inclusion of children with special needs in the communities it serves. The Foundation’s work is not limited to communities where High Hopes has an established presence; when a need is identified and the Foundation has an opportunity to help, it can provide support. Its work includes helping individuals and families access inclusive child care, early intervention, and other needed services and resources; providing scholarships or other financial assistance when available; providing education and resources for parents; supporting, recognizing and providing resources to educators who serve children with special needs; and supporting efforts that create greater awareness, inclusion and accessible opportunities for children with special needs and their families.
Angela believes the primary qualification for anyone who works at High Hopes is a genuine willingness to serve these children and their families. Education, experience and credentials matter, and the skills needed to do the job can be taught and developed. The willingness to serve cannot. That belief has guided how Angela builds the High Hopes team and remains at the center of what she expects from every person who chooses to work here.
Jamie Siciliano-Pepin
Center Director
Jamie Siciliano-Pepin is the Center Director of High Hopes Child Care and has been an important member of the High Hopes team since its inception. As a mother and grandmother, Jamie brings a personal understanding of family life and the many responsibilities families balance to her role.
Jamie brings a diverse background in business, leadership, public service and working with children and families. Over the course of her career, she served in a variety of roles, including co-owning a small business focused on children and families and spending nearly two decades in local government. Prior to joining the High Hopes team, Jamie had approximately 10 years of supervisory experience, including leading and training employees, developing procedures, working directly with the public, resolving difficult situations, and ensuring compliance with changing State of Nebraska requirements.
Jamie was recruited to join High Hopes as the organization was being established. Although she did not come from a traditional child care career path, the way she had raised and cared for her own children, combined with her character, integrity, sound judgment, respect for rules and regulations, and years of leadership experience, made her a natural choice for the High Hopes team. Her professional experience working with the public and navigating State requirements provided an equally important foundation for the operational and regulatory responsibilities of the role.
Since joining High Hopes, Jamie has built on that foundation while developing her knowledge of early childhood education and inclusive child care. Today, she oversees the day-to-day operations of the center, leads and supports the teaching team, works closely with families, and helps ensure the center provides safe, consistent and inclusive care.
Jamie understands that policies and regulations matter, but also that children and families do not all have the same needs or circumstances. She brings a practical, steady approach to her role and works with staff and families to address the individual needs of the children in our care.
Like the rest of the High Hopes leadership team, Jamie believes that serving children and families begins with genuinely wanting to be there for them. She leads her team with the expectation that children of all abilities are treated with patience, respect and dignity and that families know they have a partner in their child’s care.
Kirsten Miller
Assistant Director
Kirsten Miller is the Assistant Director of High Hopes Child Care. As a wife and mother, Kirsten understands firsthand the importance of having people you trust caring for and supporting your children. She brings a creative and adventurous personality to both her family life and her work with children and enjoys spending her free time with her family and crafting.
Caring for and working with children has been the focus of Kirsten’s professional life. She began working in early childhood education in 2015 and has spent her career growing from hands-on classroom positions into leadership roles. Her experience as a teacher gave her the opportunity to work directly with young children and families, develop curriculum and activities, support children’s development, and learn how differently individual children can learn, communicate and grow.
As her career progressed, Kirsten moved into positions with greater responsibility, including Lead Teacher, Program Specialist and Assistant Director. Before coming to High Hopes, she had experience supervising and training staff, supporting program development, working with families, maintaining licensing compliance and helping manage the day-to-day responsibilities of a child care center.
Kirsten joined High Hopes in 2023 and has become an important part of the center’s leadership team. As Assistant Director, she works closely with Jamie and the teaching staff to support the daily operation of the center, classroom quality, staff development and the individual needs of the children in our care.
Although Kirsten is part of the management team, she remains very much connected to the classroom. She regularly steps back into the classroom when additional support is needed, whether to support staff during transitions, fill in when a teacher is away, or simply provide an extra set of experienced hands. Her years of classroom experience allow her to step into different age groups and situations comfortably, and the children know her well and love having her in their classrooms.
That continued hands-on involvement is an important part of Kirsten’s approach to leadership. She understands the demands placed on teachers because she continues to work alongside them, and she understands the trust families place in the people caring for their children. She is willing to step in, solve problems, and support both children and staff wherever she is needed.
Kirsten’s creativity is also an important part of what she brings to High Hopes. Whether working directly with children, supporting teachers or helping develop activities and experiences for the center, she enjoys finding ways to make learning engaging and fun while recognizing that every child brings different strengths, interests and needs.
Kirsten believes children should have the opportunity to learn, play and be included alongside their peers. She is committed to helping High Hopes provide an environment where children of all abilities are welcomed and supported and where families know the people caring for their children genuinely want to be there.