BRUNSWICK — Coastal Enterprises has hired Azenaide Pedro as the workforce solutions team’s new program specialist.

Originally from Angola, Pedro came to Maine three years ago from Johannesburg, South Africa, where she received a bachelor’s degree in public health from Monash University. In 2020, she was one of the first individuals to apply for the pilot cohort of CEI’s Child Care Business Lab to learn how to help five women, who immigrated to Lewiston from Angola, start a cooperative child care center. The co-op is scheduled to open in May.

In her new role, Pedro will focus on growing additional child care options in Lewiston’s Tree Streets neighborhood, one of the state’s most diverse areas, with the densest population of children in the state. During recent listening sessions in the community, she confirmed the need for culturally appropriate, high quality, affordable child care that is responsive to around-the-clock work schedules.

Pedro is pursuing an associate degree in business administration and management from Central Maine Community College.