Barbara Ng

2019 Child Care Provider Champion

Barbara Ng was born in China and raised in Hong Kong, the oldest of five siblings. In the 80s, she spent several years teaching kindergarten. She also got her pharmacy technician license in 2005. She moved to San Francisco in 1991 at age 26 with her husband. She worked at Walgreens as a bookkeeper and pharmacy technician for many years.

Barbara returned to her passion for educating children in 2010, when she opened a Family Child Care Center (FCC) — Brilliant Kids Child Care & Preschool — in her home on Silver Avenue.

In 2016, Barbara and her family invested in a new home a few blocks away, and opened a second, larger FCC on the ground level, specifically designed by Barbara herself, for a large-capacity FCC program, more than doubling her ability to serve families in the community. Her daughter Serena oversees the original location of Brilliant Kids; the two programs work hand in hand, following the same educational principals and philosophies. They also collaborate on several annual events for the families they serve, as well as alumni of both programs.

Barbara originally came to Children’s Council for support in getting her license, but she quickly became involved in a full range of our early educator workshops and programs.

She is well known in the early educator community and is active in the Family Child Care Quality Network Provider Leadership Academy, helping to guide and support the next generation of child care providers. Barbara is also very engaged with our Healthy Apple program, having won Healthy Apple awards the last two years.