Oscar Tang

System Designer for Child Care & Family Support

About

I’m a system designer working in child care, early learning, and family support. My work brings together data, narrative, language equity, and community insight to help organizations create structures that truly support families and providers.


My Path

I was born in Guangzhou and spent my early years in Canton and Hong Kong, largely raised by my grandparents. My grandfather would ride a bicycle over an hour each way to take me to school. That kind of quiet commitment shaped how I understand care and responsibility.

Later, moving to the United States layered in questions of migration, belonging, and family closeness. Those experiences continue to influence how I see systems: not as abstract mechanisms, but as human environments that either hold people—or leave them to navigate alone.

Over more than a decade across family child care, nonprofit operations, advocacy networks, and local government partnerships, I’ve worn many roles: provider, data manager, translator, connector, technologist, advocate.

Across all of them, one pattern kept repeating:

I help people navigate complexity and build clarity together.


How I Work

Human-Centered Systems

I approach system design the way good caregivers approach children—with attention, respect, and a belief that context matters. A “good” system is one that families and providers can actually use without feeling lost or blamed.

Insight Over Information

Data only becomes meaningful when it improves decisions and relationships. I focus on building insight infrastructure—shared understanding, feedback loops, and narratives—not just dashboards.

Language & Access

Families should not be excluded by language, literacy, or digital barriers. I integrate multilingual content, translation, and plain-language design into the tools and processes I work on.

Belonging as a Design Principle

Policies and tools should help people feel seen, not invisible. Belonging isn’t an extra; it’s a structural choice embedded in tone, timing, forms, questions, and follow-up.


Professional Roles & Collaborations

I currently serve as Web Content Manager for the California Child Care Resource & Referral Network, supporting MCCP.org and statewide infrastructure for helping families find and understand child care options.

Beyond my primary role, I contribute to several efforts advancing equity, systems design, and community-informed policy:


Home-Based Child Care Research

I collaborate with the Center for Home-Based Child Care Research at the Erikson Institute, where I serve in multiple roles:

These roles allow me to bridge provider experience, community insight, and system-level design into statewide and national research conversations.


Growth & Perspective

I’ve often taken on the role of peacemaker, avoiding conflict to preserve harmony. In recent years, I’ve been learning to pair that instinct with a commitment to truth, clear feedback, and structural honesty.

I’m especially interested in:

My goal is to help build systems that are not only functional, but humane.

If this resonates, I’d be glad to connect.