HISTORY
The Beginning: Four Women, One Vision
In 1977 in a Washington, D.C. basement, four women with diverse cultural backgrounds and a single passion for educational excellence and opportunity founded the enterprise that would become Creative Associates International.
Charito Kruvant was a pioneer in bilingual education who had worked with Head Start in minority neighborhoods in New Jersey. Mimi Tse, originally trained as a chemist, was fascinated by child psychology and the development of the young mind. Diane Dodge was an early childhood specialist, and Cheryl Jones was an accomplished education practitioner. Both were from the United States.
Our Approach to Global Development
Charito Kruvant describes the passion, skills and diversity behind Creative’s approach to inclusive and sustainable global development. Watch Video
“We wanted to be sure that we could have an impact in society,” recalls Charito Kruvant. “The four of us came from different cultural settings—Latin American, Chinese, African America and American—and we strongly believed that we had skills and experiences that could benefit others.”
The four collaborated on an early childhood development project that focused on U.S. education and human development programs. Eventually, their domestic focus turned to international educational development and supporting communities in transition.
Their entrepreneurial spirit helped to build Creative’s reputation for innovation, initiative and flexibility.
Today, Charito and a team of other experienced professionals lead Creative, which has grown to almost 1,000 employees and has activities in more than 25 countries. The Company’s portfolio has grown considerably and now includes economic growth, stabilizing communities, enhancing good governance, promoting transparent elections and more.
MISSION
To support people around the world to realize the positive change they seek.
VISION
Creative envisions stable neighborhoods, communities and regions that can develop effective institutions to provide for their people, enabling them to overcome hardship and live peaceful and fulfilling lives.
