First Things First Chief Executive Officer Melinda Morrison Gulick was recently honored with a 2026 Women of Achievement award from In Business Magazine.
Each year, In Business Magazine celebrates 14 women leaders, honoring them for their achievements in leadership, business, community and philanthropy. The annual luncheon features selected leaders who take center stage as storytellers to share their personal journeys of impact and resilience. Gulick, who has served as CEO of First Things First since 2022, was 1 of 4 Women of Achievement selected to share her story.
Woven into her message that “everything is figure-outable,” Gulick shared about her time growing up in Scottsdale, her college experience in Texas and her brief career as a television journalist. When she decided to leave the news station, she accepted her father’s wise words, “I always thought you would be making the news, not reporting it.”
She first ventured into early childhood education work when she returned to Arizona.
“I am honored to be the chief executive officer of First Things First, Arizona’s early childhood agency,” Gulick said. “What an honor and a responsibility it is to lead this agency, going full circle back to my first job working for an early childhood organization. The thing that I love the most about this role is really knowing Arizona, and serving the children who live in every corner of it by funding programs focused on quality early learning, preventive health, family support and early literacy.”
Today, First Things First partners with families, communities and system leaders to make the early childhood system work better—improving access, strengthening quality and removing barriers so children can get a strong start. First Things First-funded programs and services each year reach around 160,000 young children, families and early childhood professionals across Arizona.
“I feel called to this work—when we invest in young children, it changes the trajectory of their life—forever,” Gulick said. “And in some small way it pays forward the abundance of blessings I have—some I was born with, some I have figured out.”
The magazine’s Women in Achievement issue highlighted Gulick’s perspective on how to make a difference in the lives of women and young people:
“We can treat child care as essential infrastructure, encourage employers to offer meaningful child care benefits and flexibility, support families with affordable options and invest in early childhood educators. High-quality child care is support for today’s workforce and an investment in our future workforce as well. Children who participate in high-quality early childhood programs have higher academic achievements and economic outcomes, ensuring they’ll be ready for the jobs of the future. We have to build and support a sustainable system that makes it possible for women to thrive at work and at home.”
