Breakout Session Presenter s Bios

Transcription

1 Breakout Session Presenter s Bios Maria Beam, LMSW Maria Beam is the director of Oakland University Social Work Program. She earned her BA in psychology and MSW from Michigan State University and is a PhD student in educational leadership. Maria has over 10 years of experience as a program evaluator focusing on outcome evaluation and capacity building for organizations and communities. Maria teaches introductory courses in social work and macro practice to undergraduate students. Sheri Butters Sheri Butters is the director of Assessment and Systems at the Early Childhood Investment Corporation. In this role she provides leadership and direction to support the statewide implementation of Great Start to Quality and provides oversight for the validation, assessment and systems components of Michigan s quality rating and improvement system for child care and preschool programs. Jill Claxton, MA Jill Claxton is the evaluation, training, and assessment coordinator at the HighScope Educational Research Foundation. In her 20-plus years of experience at HighScope, Ms. Claxton has collected program and child data and trained others to do so both nationally and internationally. She has coordinated and supervised several projects that entail monitoring multisite research efforts, serving as a liaison with partner sites and establishing guidelines for representative sample selection and dissemination of data findings. She serves as Project Coordinator for the Great Start to Quality assessment component coordinated through the Center for Early Education Evaluation (CEEE) at HighScope. Ms. Claxton earned her master s degree from Eastern Michigan University in educational psychology, with a concentration in research and evaluation. HighScope Educational Research Foundation 1

2 Heather Evans Heather Evans became the Great Start to Quality validation and assessment manager at the Early Childhood Investment Corporation in February Her current work is focused on ensuring the integrity of the Great Start to Quality rating system by making sure that both the self and outside assessment processes are implemented effectively and efficiently. From 2012 to 2015, Ms. Evans worked as an independently contracted validation coordinator and as an Assessment Specialist. In these roles, she validated programs self-assessment surveys and completed onsite observations of programs care and education processes and practices using the Program Quality Assessment (PQA) tools. For seven years prior to joining the Investment Corporation, Heather worked in a medical facility child-care center as an assistant preschool teacher and a lead teacher in the toddler classroom. Ms. Evans received her bachelor s degree in education from Ashford University. She also received her associate s degree in early childhood education from Baker College of Flint, where she earned an honor graduate award. Matthew Fifolt, MEd, PhD Matthew Fifolt is the associate director for the Evaluation and Assessment Unit in the Center for the Study of Community Health at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Dr. Fifolt received his PhD in educational leadership from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Christine A. B. Maier, PhD Christine A. B. Maier is the preschool consultant for Oakland Schools, Oakland Intermediate School District. Her responsibilities include training, coaching, mentoring and supporting preschool programs, teachers, administrators and other staff in 28 school districts throughout Oakland County. Dr. Maier has worked in the field of education for over 40 years. She has been a lecturer at Oakland University, Macomb Community College, and Washtenaw Community College and has presented at numerous national, state, and local early childhood conferences. She is a former director of the Lowry Early Childhood Center. Prior to her employment with Oakland Schools, Dr. Maier has also served as an educational consultant for the HighScope HighScope Educational Research Foundation 2

3 Educational Research Foundation and worked as a teacher in the HighScope Demonstration Preschool classroom in Ypsilanti, Michigan. She also has over 25 years of experience teaching music and arts education, PreK Grade 9, in the Massachusetts public schools. Beth Marshall, MA Beth Marshall is the director of Early Childhood at the HighScope Educational Research Foundation in Ypsilanti, Michigan. She has written and developed training materials for HighScope on a range of topics including adult learning, art with young children, adult-child interactions, scaffolding children=s math learning, and the impact of brain research on early childhood practices. She is the author of the book HighScope Step by Step: Lesson Plans for the First 30 Days and co-author of Small-Group Times to Scaffold Early Learning, and COR Advantage User Guide. She is a contributing author to International Perspectives on Early Childhood Education and Care. Ms. Marshall contributed to the development of the Preschool COR and PQA assessment instruments. She was the Project Director and Trainer for HighScope Ireland and for the Khululeka HighScope Teacher Training Centre in S. Africa, and was co-principal investigator for the Numbers Plus Efficacy Study funded by the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Research. Ms. Marshall has conducted training projects throughout the United States and internationally. Kate McGilly, PhD Kate McGilly is the senior director of research and quality at Parents as Teachers. She has been with Parents As Teachers National Center since She provides leadership for all functions related to research, evaluation, data collection, quality endorsement, and quality improvements, and directs and manages a team of professionals working on multiple projects related to research and evaluation of PAT. Dr. McGilly holds a bachelor of science in psychology from McGill University, and master of science and PhD degrees in developmental psychology from Carnegie Mellon University. Dr. McGilly has over 25 years of professional research experience and has been published in numerous journals including Developmental Psychology and Child Development. HighScope Educational Research Foundation 3

4 Julie Preskitt, MSOT, MPH, PhD Julie Preskitt is an assistant professor in the Maternal and Child Health Concentration, Department of Health Care Organization and Policy at the University of Alabama at Birmingham s School of Public Health (UAB-SOPH). Dr. Preskitt holds a PhD in public administration and public policy at Auburn University; a master of public health in maternal and child health from UAB-SOPH; and a master of science in occupational therapy from UAB School of Health Professions. Dr. Preskitt s current projects include needs assessment, program evaluation, and research in Alabama related to the Maternal, Infant, Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program, Title V MCH and CSHCN Programs, the Preschool Development Grant Project, the Family to Family Health Information Center, and the state-based Disability and Health Program. Kyle Snow, PhD Kyle Snow is currently a senior scholar and director of the Center for Applied Research at the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). In this position he is responsible for ensuring that NAEYC positions and procedures are research-based, and he provides scientific leadership for the organization. Prior to joining NAEYC in 2010, Dr. Snow was a senior research psychologist at Research Triangle International (RTI), where he was the principal investigator for the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Birth cohort study (ECLS-B). Prior to joining RTI in 2005, Dr. Snow was the director of the National Institute of Child Health & Human Development Program in Early Learning and School Readiness. Dr. Snow holds master's and doctoral degrees in human development from Cornell University. His areas of specialization include infant and child development, early childhood assessment, and factors affecting children s early care and education experiences and their transition to school, especially the experiences of dual language learners. Dr. Snow is co-editor (and contributing author) of School Readiness, Early Learning, and the Transition to Kindergarten in the era of Accountability (Brookes, 2007). He has served on numerous federal, state, and private advisory panels, and is a Research Connections Fellow. HighScope Educational Research Foundation 4

5 Tracye Strichik, EdS Tracye Strichik is the director for the Office of Early Learning and Family Support at the Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education, which includes professional development for home visitation, pre-k teachers, and Alabama s First Teacher: Supporting Alabama s Families, which includes MIECHV-funded home visitation programs. Dr. Strichik is currently working on her PhD in early childhood education and teaching at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Lisa Sturges, PhD Lisa Sturges works as the director for Great Start Macomb where she leads the Help Me Grow work for the county. She is passionate about using data gathered to inform policy and practice. Dr. Sturges has worked in the field of early childhood for more than 13 years and has worked on the Help Me Grow project since its inception in Tomoko Wakabayashi, EdD Tomoko Wakabayashi is the founding director of the Center for Early Education Evaluation (CEEE) at HighScope. Dr. Wakabayashi earned her EdD in human development and psychology from Harvard University Graduate School of Education. She serves as the principal investigator for the Michigan Great Start Readiness Program Evaluation, Parents as Teachers Innovative Approaches to Literacy Project, Max M. & Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation funded Brightmoor community-based evaluation, the Detroit Head Start Innovation Fund Evaluation, and the HighScope COR Advantage Validation Study (internally funded). She is also the assistant principal investigator for the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) funded Numbers Plus Efficacy Study. Prior to joining HighScope in June 2011, Dr. Wakabayashi served as a research manager for the Parents as Teachers national office where she managed the collecting, analyzing, and reporting of Parents as Teachers Annual Program Reports (currently Affiliate Performance Reports) from more than 2,500 programs. She has published works on assessment design, bilingualism, and acquisition of language and culture. HighScope Educational Research Foundation 5

6 Lisa Wasacz, MEd Lisa Wasacz is the education consultant for Preschool Special Education with the Office of Preschool & Out-of-School Time Learning in the Office of Great Start at the Michigan Department of Education. She provides training and technical assistance on Part B of IDEA Preschool Indicators: B-6 Educational Environments (ages 3 5), B-7 Preschool Child Outcomes, and B-12 IEP by age 3. Ms, Wasacz also facilitates both in-person and online preschool-related curriculum and assessment trainings for HighScope as a Field Consultant. Christina Weiland, EdD Christina Weiland s research focuses on the effects of early childhood interventions and public policies on children s development, especially on children from low-income families. Currently, she serves as principal investigator on a large-scale, Institute of Education Sciences-funded study of the longitudinal impacts of the Boston Public Schools prekindergarten program on children s reading and mathematics skills, grade retention, and special education placement through the end of third grade and of variation in these impacts across student subgroups and schools. She is also a 2014 National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation post-doctoral Fellow. Previously, she served as project director and co-principal investigator on Preparing to Succeed, an IES-funded study of the impacts of the Boston prekindergarten program on children s kindergarten readiness. She is also part of the evaluation team of Un Buen Comienzo, a preschool teacher professional development program in Santiago, Chile, and she was a postdoctoral fellow on the Secondary Analysis of Variation in Impact (SAVI) Study of Head Start. She holds doctoral (quantitative policy analysis in education) and master's degrees from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and a bachelor's degree from Dartmouth College. HighScope Educational Research Foundation 6