Tonya Sears is the North Idaho College Head Start Education/Disabilities Manager. She has worked for NIC Head Start for the past 15 years. Tonya taught early care and education for 10 years before joining Head Start, with a total of 25 years in the field of early childhood education. In the Head Start program, she has been a Family Service Coordinator, Classroom Teacher, Child Development Mentor-Coach, and now is the Education/Disabilities Manager for North Idaho College Head Start.

Tonya has been involved with Idaho AEYC and NAEYC since 2000. She is an IdahoSTARS trainer and serves on the ECE taskforce for North Idaho. Tonya received her A.S. from North Idaho College; her B.S. in Child, Family and Consumer Studies; her M.S. in Family Consumer Sciences from the University of Idaho; her M.Ed. in Special Education from the University of Idaho and her M.A. in Special Education Visual Impairment from the University of Northern Colorado. She is the mother of two and grandmother of one and is currently living in Post Falls.