Early Education & Child Development SIG

X. Christine Wang is a Professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Her research interests include young children's learning and collaboration in technology-rich environments, scientific inquiry and young children’s epistemic reasoning, early literacy and design experiment, and early childhood education in international contexts. Dr. Wang has published over 50 research journal articles and book chapters and conducted over 100 conference presentations and invited international presentations. Her work has been supported by Spencer Foundations and IRA Alva Knight Grant. Her research earned the honor of AERA 2007 “Jan Hawkins Early Career Contributions to Humanistic Research and Scholarship in Learning Technologies Award.” Dr. Wang is actively involved in professional organizations. She is an Associate Editor of Early Childhood Research Quarterly and the former Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Research in Childhood Education (2017-2019).

Bethany Wilinski is an Assistant Professor in the department of Teacher Education at Michigan State University. She studies the lived experiences of pre-kindergarten teachers as they enact early childhood education policies, with an emphasis on understanding how policy affects teachers’ work lives and job satisfaction. Her current work in Michigan, funded by the Spencer Foundation, examines how public school public pre-K teachers navigate the pre-K borderland, a context marked by competing notions of best practice. Her 2017 book, "When Pre-K Comes to School: Policy, Partnerships, and the Early Childhood Education Workforce," is based on previous research that examined the complexity of implementing pre-K through school-community partnerships. Bethany also does research with pre- and in-service pre-primary teachers in Tanzania, where she has over a decade of experience teaching, developing curricula, and working with teachers. Her current work uses video-cued ethnographic methods to examine diverse stakeholders’ notions of "good quality" teaching in pre-primary classrooms. Bethany is the recipient of a 2019 NAEd/Spencer Research Development Award. Her research has been published in journals such as "Teaching and Teacher Education," "Educational Policy," and "Teachers College Record."

Valkessha (Val) Marshall is a Ph.D. candidate in the Education Administration program at the University of New Orleans and an early childhood educator at a charter school in New Orleans. Her areas of interest are Black parent perspective about charter schools and early intervention and implementation in literacy and math. She has homeschooled three of her four children and is a CLASS Reliable Observer, a PD Specialist, an active NAEYC member, and an education consultant. Also, she has served as a charter school Board of Directors member, a Master Teacher for Educare New Orleans, an assistant director and "acting director" of childcare centers, a mentor teacher for undergraduates in an alternative licensing program, and (host) school coordinator of an LEH Prime Time Preschool Reading Program. Additionally, she has presented at a GNOAEYC conference and trained early childhood educators as a Louisiana Pathways trainer. She is currently working on her dissertation.

Katherine Delaney is an Associate Professor of Early Childhood and Special Education at the University of Toledo in Toledo, Ohio. Prior to this position, Kate was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Michigan, where she worked with Dr. Susan B. Neuman, exploring teacher practices around literacy interventions, as well as the scale up of universal pre-K (UPK) in New York City. Kate received her PhD from the University of Wisconsin - Madison in 2013, where she was a student of Beth Graue, and her Master's degree from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, where she was a student of Nancy File. Before pursuing her doctoral degree, Kate was a preschool teacher in New York and Wisconsin. Kate's research largely focuses on relationships between early education policy (with a particular focus on public pre-Kindergarten and Head Start) and the lived experiences of teachers, children and families as they experience policy shifts and reforms.

Amber L. Brown, Ed.D., is an associate professor at the University of Houston - Clear Lake and the Early Childhood Education Program Director. She is a former preschool and elementary teacher as well as a former preschool director. In addition to many years of private and public-school experience, she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in early childhood topics, including preschool curriculum, play, early childhood pedagogy, and emergent literacy. Her research interests include family engagement, early childhood teacher preparation and efficacy, playful learning, the promotion of executive function, and early childhood home visiting programs - specifically the HIPPY program. Dr. Brown is very involved with the local early childhood in her community, serving on the Board of Directors for the Moody Early Childhood Center in Galveston and President of the Gulf Coast Chapter of the Texas Association for the Education of Young Children. faculty bio.

Sohyun "Soh" Meacham, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Literacy Education at the University of Northern Iowa. Soh's research centers on young children's language and literacy development in various early childhood classroom contexts. She is specifically interested in how children's playful and dialogic interactions in classrooms are associated with their literacy practices. In addition, she is interested in multicultural children's literature for diversity and social justice. She is currently analyzing disability portrayals in picture books with racially/ethnically-focused awards for children's literature such as the Coretta Scott King Award, the Pura Belpré Award, and Asian-Pacific American Award for Literature.

Click for faculty profile.

sohyun.meacham@uni.edu

Martha (Marty) Lash, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education at Kent State University, Kent, Ohio. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on child development, guidance, critical inquiry, and professional development. Her areas of research include early childhood teacher professional development including international settings and young children's social development.

Daniel J. Castner, Ph.D. (Kent State University, 2015) is an Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Education at Indiana University – Bloomington. Prior to working in higher education and throughout graduate studies, Dan taught kindergarten in Ohio from 2000 to 2015. His research focuses upon early childhood curriculum leadership, and teachers' processes for making pedagogical decisions and value judgments in their classrooms.

Stephanie M. Curenton, Ph.D. is a tenured associate professor and director of the Ecology of School Readiness (ESR) Lab at Boston University where she also serves as the Faculty Director of Early Childhood Community-based Initiatives. She was trained as a developmental and community psychologist at the University of Virginia. She is committed to promoting the health and education of young children by using research to inform culturally responsive teaching practices and socially equitable public policies.

Tomoko Wakabayashi, Ed.D, is Associate Professor of Education and Coordinator of Early Childhood Ph.D program in the Department of Human Development and Child Studies at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. She has worked on projects that promote high quality early childhood care and education for vulnerable children in under-resourced, disadvantaged communities. Dr. Wakabayashi also conducts US-Japan comparative research on early childhood education.

Jill Claxton is a fourth year early childhood doctoral student at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. She is also a Research Associate at HighScope's Center for Early Education Research and Evaluation (CEERE) and has served in various roles over the past 25+ years. Jill has collected program and child assessment data and trained others to do so both nationally and internationally. She has coordinated and supervised several projects which entail monitoring multi-site research efforts, serving as a liaison with partner sites, establishing guidelines for representative sample selection, and dissemination of data findings. Her research interests include; early childhood program observational assessments, assessment of young children, family child care, redshirting of kindergarten children and technology use in early childhood programs.

Nancy File is an associate professor in the Early Childhood program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She is an active team member in a large teacher preparation program that incorporates the coursework necessary for English as a Second Language/Bilingual Education for all certification students. This work is supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of English Language Acquisition. She also works with the Educare of Milwaukee program as the local evaluation partner and participates in the Educare Learning Network. She is a co-editor of the book, Curriculum in Early Childhood Education: Re-examined, Rediscovered, Renewed.

Melissa Sherfinski is an Associate Professor for Early Childhood and Elementary Education in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction/Literacy Studies at West Virginia University. She is a former Kindergarten teacher who has developed and teaches a range of classes for preservice and in-service teachers and mentors doctoral candidates enrolled in WVU's Ed.D. and Ph.D. programs. All three of her degrees were earned from UW-Madison. Her research agenda focuses on pre-kindergarten reform and home-school relationships in the early years, with a special focus on rural and Appalachian contexts. Click for faculty profile.

Michelle Bauml is the Clotilda Winter Professor of Education at Texas Christian University. Her research interests include new teacher development, teacher decision-making, and early childhood social studies education. Michelle’s work has been published in journals including the Journal of Research in Childhood Education, Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, Young Children, Social Studies and the Young Learner, Teaching and Teacher Education, Theory into Practice, and Teacher Education Quarterly. Michelle holds a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from The University of Texas at Austin.

Early in her career Mary served as a director of a laboratory school where she began her teaching and research focused on the development of collaborative inquiry, critical thinking, and reflective practice among preservice and inservice teachers. During the past 15 years she has mentored three teacher cohorts comprised of laboratory school mentor teachers, Head Start teachers, and university laboratory school teachers. She co-designed and delivered an experimental Prek-K licensure program for Head Start teachers that enabled them to keep their jobs while going to school. Concurrently, she leads a cross-cultural research study focused on toddler teacher practice in the US and Italy. Her passion includes finding ways to bring teachers together to learn in communities, to create settings in which required curricula and regulations can co-exist with authentic learning experiences that are based on the interests of children and their families, and the removal of barriers to ensure working teachers have access to education and licensure.

Katherine Delaney is an Associate Professor of Early Childhood and Special Education at the University of Toledo in Toledo, Ohio. Prior to this position, Kate was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Michigan, where she worked with Dr. Susan B. Neuman, exploring teacher practices around literacy interventions, as well as the scale up of universal pre-K (UPK) in New York City. Kate received her PhD from the University of Wisconsin - Madison in 2013, where she was a student of Beth Graue, and her Master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, where she was a student of Nancy File. Before pursuing her doctoral degree, Kate was a preschool teacher in New York and Wisconsin. Kate’s research largely focuses on relationships between early education policy (with a particular focus on public pre-Kindergarten and Head Start) and the lived experiences of teachers, children and families as they experience policy shifts and reforms.

Dr. Monica Yudron is an Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Education and Development in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Dr. Yudron is an Early Career Fellow of the Society for Research on Child Development and the American Education Research Association. Dr. Yudron is also a technical consultant for the Instituto Nacional para la Evaluación de la Educación in Mexico. Her research interests are centered on understanding formal programs of early childhood education and care as primary settings for intervening in the lives of young children facing a variety of poverty-related risks. She is particularly interested in understanding the cognitive and social emotional processes related to teacher learning and development as she views teacher capacities as a critical element in the classroom learning environment. She has been a research fellow and data analyst for domestic and international school-based projects since 2007. Currently, she is a member of the interdisciplinary team evaluating the Preschool Expansion Grant activities in Massachusetts. She is also involved in several smaller-scale evaluation and implementation projects in urban early education settings.

Debra J. Ackerman is a researcher in the ETS Early Childhood Research & Assessment Center. Her current research focuses on early childhood education policy issues, particularly related to the use of assessment data. Prior to joining ETS, Debi was the Associate Director for Research at the National Institute for Early Education Research and a Kindergarten and Grade 1 assistant teacher. She has served the EE/CD SIG as the Program Co-Chair since 2012 and was the recipient of the SIG’s 2006-2007 Dissertation Award. [Email: dackerman@ets.org]

Dr. Aubrey H. Wang is an Associate Professor at the Department of Educational Leadership at the St. Joseph’s University (SJU) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Prior to joining SJU, Dr. Wang worked for 10 years in various educational organizations such as the Consortium for Research in Education, Educational Testing Service, and the School District of Philadelphia. Dr. Wang was trained as a methodologist and has conducted quantitative and qualitative research studies on issues relating to early mathematics learning, achievement gap, among others at the international, national, state, and district levels. Her work has appeared in peer-reviewed journals including Contemporary Educational Psychology, Early Childhood Education Journal, Education Policy Analysis Archives, International Journal of Educational Management, and Scholar-Practitioner Quarterly.

Stephanie C. Sanders-Smith is Assistant Professor of Curriculum and Instruction and the Yew Chung – Bernard Spodek Scholar in Early Childhood at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Prior to joining the faculty at UIUC, she was Clinical Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Studies at the University of Florida. While at UF, she oversaw the implementation of the Florida Master Teacher Initiative, a program for early childhood teachers in high need schools in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Dr. Sanders-Smith’s research in early childhood education focuses on effective pedagogies for young children and appropriate family engagement strategies for high need families. Her current research includes investigating how preservice teachers understand the relationships between culture and pedagogy; evaluating a project that supports the development of collaborative relationships between teachers and families; and the analysis of the translanguaging practices of children in a Progressive Hong Kong preschool. Dr. Sanders-Smith’s research in both early childhood pedagogy and family engagement informs the philosophies and methods of the Early Childhood Teacher Education Program at UIUC, which Dr. Sanders-Smith directs. The program has key goals of supporting students in developing deep understandings of developmentally appropriate early childhood teaching, social justice, and the role of young children as active citizens and agents in their own learning.

Joanna Englehardt is a doctoral candidate and assistant instructor of Curriculum and Instruction in Early Childhood Education at The University of Texas at Austin. As a former preschool director, her professional and research interests center on promoting teacher retention through the use of ongoing inquiry-based professional learning. Specifically, professional learning that promotes teachers' agency and critical participation as they work to challenge the status quo and educate for a more just society for all.

Stephanie M. Curenton, Ph.D. is a tenured associate professor and director of the Ecology of School Readiness (ESR) Lab at Boston University where she also serves as the Faculty Director of Early Childhood Community-based Initiatives. She was trained as a developmental and community psychologist at the University of Virginia. She is committed to promoting the health and education of young children by using research to inform culturally responsive teaching practices and socially equitable public policies. Her work has been funded by the Office of Program Research and Evaluation in the Administration for Children and Families, the American Education Research Association, the Foundation for Child Development, the Ford Foundation, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

Mary Lyons is a doctoral candidate, course instructor, and school/community field placement supervisor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. As a former kindergarten and primary grades teacher, her research interests are focused on teaching and learning experiences in the early elementary years, when children are in the B-3 (birth-to-third-grade) period of the K-12 system. She is specifically interested in how teachers balance developmental appropriateness with academic rigor during that period.

Mary Benson McMullen is Professor of Early Childhood Education at Indiana University in Bloomington, IN, where she has been for 20 years. She earned both MS (1987) and PhD (1992) degrees from Florida State University, both in Child Development. Her more recent focus in scholarship involves factors that influence the wellbeing of infants and toddlers and how the wellbeing of all individuals in the caregiving environment is necessary to ensure positive outcomes for children. In addition, Mary examines factors that influence teachers' beliefs and practices (birth to kindergarten), in particular relationship-based practices such as primary or lead person care, continuity of care, and other contributors to "high quality" in environments and experiences, as well as what can be learned from differing perspectives of quality across cultures and contexts. Before her career as an academic, Mary spent several years as an infant/toddler caregiver, preschool teacher, and director of an early childhood education program. She and her husband have raised 3 sons.
mmcmulle@indiana.edu

Dr. Apple is Assistant Professor of Education in the EC Program at Clarion University of Pennsylvania. She holds a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with a concentration in Early Childhood Education and a minor in Educational Policy Studies from Indiana University-Bloomington. For over 30 years she has been active in the early childhood profession with 23 years in higher education. She began her career in Head Start, taught young children, served as NAEYC Accredited child care center director, and as a teacher education faculty member at both two and four-year higher education institutions in Texas, Indiana, and Pennsylvania. In addition, she has been actively involved in early childhood professional organizations at the national, state & local level, including serving on the Council for NAEYC Accreditation. Her research interests focus on early childhood program quality and the leader's role in curriculum and quality improvement. Her articles can be found in Early Education and Development and Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, as well as co-authored articles with Dr. Mary McMullen in Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood Education and Young Children. She presents regularly at professional conferences. Previously she held a joint position as Education Program Chair at Ivy Tech Community College and Indiana University with responsibility for transfer programs. Earlier in her career she taught at Indiana University-Bloomington and at San Antonio College where she ended her tenure as ECE Department Chair.

Lucinda Heimer is an Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Her research interests include: race, culture, and identity in early education; integrating early childhood curriculum; critical theoretical perspectives; culturally relevant pedagogy; and policy issues of equity and access in early education. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses for integrated curriculum birth – 8, working with families, and identity, culture, and social justice in education. Lucy served as the EECD Listserv Coordinator for 2009-2012.
Faculty Profile
heimerl@uww.edu

Amber Friesen is an Assistant Professor in Early Childhood Special Education in the Department of Special Education at San Francisco State University. Her research interests focus on supporting young children at-risk or diagnosed with disabilities and their families. Specifically, she is interested in inclusive early education settings, early literacy development and intervention, and family partnerships. Amber teaches graduate courses in family systems and services, atypical early development, and interventions for young children.
Faculty Profile
afriesen@sfsu.edu

Ashley Brailsford Vaughns is an Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Education at the University of Nebraska Omaha. Her research and teaching interests focus on family, school, and community partnerships. She also teaches courses to graduate and undergraduate students on guidance of young children, leadership in early childhood education, and foundations in early childhood education.
vaughnsab@cofc.edu

Dr. Aubrey H. Wang is an Associate Professor at the Department of Educational Leadership at the St. Joseph’s University (SJU) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her research interests focus on issues relating to early mathematics learning, achievement gap, among others at the international, national, state, and district levels. Her work has appeared in peer-reviewed journals including Contemporary Educational Psychology, Early Childhood Education Journal, Education Policy Analysis Archives, International Journal of Educational Management, and Scholar-Practitioner Quarterly.
Dr. Wang is passionate about researching and communicating the need for more and better early mathematics learning opportunities for young children to develop their early mathematics skills. Dr. Wang is currently working collaboratively on two manuscripts relating to this issue. One is a meta-analysis on studies that have been published since 2000 to provide early childhood education stakeholders an in-depth review of the time, instruction, and content of the learning opportunities and their effects on mathematics achievement. The other study describes a randomized field study that examined the impact of engaging trained parents as partners to increase the mathematics readiness and test scores of primary grade children.
Dr. Wang has had extensive committee service experience, including serving as a treasurer and controller for the Chinese American Educational Research and Development Association. Currently, she is serving as the chair of the College of Arts and Sciences’ Planning and Assessment Committee among other committee work at SJU.