Our purpose
We translate professional knowledge into organized action. Our approach respects the experience educators already possess while providing clear tools, thoughtful coaching, and realistic strategies they can put into practice.
Our values
Knowledge. Character. Purpose. Sandywood is rooted in education and driven by service, integrity, excellence, empowerment, and lifelong learning.
Founder, CEO & Early Education Navigator™
Tambra M. Newton, B.S. in ECE, MOML
Early Education Navigator™ • Educator • Leader • Mentor • Consultant
Tambra Newton brings more than 30 years of early childhood leadership, program operation, training, advocacy, mentoring, and organizational experience. Her Early Education Navigator role brings those experiences together to help professionals and caregivers clarify needs, locate resources, prepare questions and correspondence, and move toward informed next steps.
Her professional background includes conducting NAFCC accreditation observations and previously serving as a Professional Development Specialist for the Council for Professional Recognition. She also served as President of Home Childcare Providers of Northeast Hillsborough in 2007, as an Area 21 Representative for the Florida Family Child Care Home Association, and on a Hillsborough County advisory board representing family childcare providers. This experience informs Sandywood Institute’s practical approach to training, consulting, resource navigation, and program support.
She is also the founder of the National Alliance for Home-Based and Center-Based Educators (NAHCE) and Tambra’s Tinysteps Learning Academy LLC. These founding roles connect her hands-on early childhood experience with her work supporting educators, children, families, and communities.
- B.S. in ECE
- Bachelor of Science in Early Childhood Education
- MOML
- Master’s Degree in Organizational Management and Leadership