UVA Clubs: Supporting our Youngest Generation with Dean Robert Pianta
Supporting our Youngest Generation: Challenges and Opportunities in Early Education and Child Care
All alumni, friends, and families were invited to join Dean Robert Pianta (PAR '08, '13), Dean of the UVA School of Education and Human Development, as he hosted a group of national experts for a panel discussion on contemporary challenges and opportunities in educational and developmental support for our youngest citizens. They discussed the challenges and opportunities within early childhood education, including the intersection of care and education, closing the achievement gaps, and education equity. The panel also addressed workforce concerns and the evaluation of quality programming in the future.
Dean Pianta was joined by Jacqueline Jones, President and CEO, The Foundation for Child Development; Sam Meisels, Founding Executive Director of the Buffett Early Childhood Institute at the University of Nebraska; and Amanda Williford (CLAS '96), the Batten Bicentennial Professor of Early Childhood Education and the Associate Director for Early Childhood Education, CASTL.
About our Speakers:
Robert Pianta (PAR '08, '13), Ph.D., is Dean of the UVA School of Education and Human Development, Batten Bicentennial Professor of Early Childhood Education, Professor of Psychology, and founding director of the Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning at the University of Virginia. Dr. Pianta‘s research and policy interests focus on the intersection of education and human development. Dr. Pianta received a BS and an MA in Special Education from the University of Connecticut and a PhD in Psychology from the University of Minnesota. He began his career as a special education teacher and joined the University of Virginia faculty in 1986. He is past Editor of the Journal of School Psychology and associate editor for AERA Open. An internationally recognized expert in both early childhood education and K-12 teaching and learning, Dr. Pianta regularly consults with federal agencies, foundations, universities, and governments.
Dr. Jacqueline Jones is The Foundation for Child Development’s President & CEO. Prior to her tenure at the Foundation for Child Development, Dr. Jones served as a Senior Advisor on Early Learning to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and as the country’s first Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and Early Learning in the U.S. Department of Education. Dr. Jones also served as the Assistant Commissioner for the Division of Early Childhood Education in the New Jersey State Department of Education and as a Senior Research Scientist at the Educational Testing Service in Princeton for over 15 years. Dr. Jones has been a visiting faculty member at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a full-time faculty member at the City University of New York. She received both her master’s and Ph.D. degrees from Northwestern University.
Dr. Samuel J. Meisels is the Founding Executive Director of the Buffett Early Childhood Institute at the University of Nebraska. A former preschool, kindergarten, and first-grade teacher, Dr. Meisels was a senior advisor in early childhood development for the Developmental Evaluation Clinic of Boston Children’s Hospital. Prior to that appointment, Dr. Meisels was a professor in the Department of Child Study at Tufts University and director of the Eliot-Pearson Children’s School. For 21 years, he was a faculty member at the University of Michigan’s School of Education and a research scientist at the Center for Human Growth and Development, where he is now professor and research scientist emeritus. Dr. Meisels graduated magna cum laude from the University of Rochester and received masters and doctoral degrees from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He holds an honorary doctor of humane letters from Roosevelt University in Chicago.
Dr. Amanda Williford (CLAS '96) is currently the Batten Bicentennial Professor of Early Childhood Education and the Associate Director for Early Childhood Education, CASTL. She holds a Ph.D and M.A., in Clinical Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a B.A., Psychology, from the University of Virginia. Her current primary research is focused on developing and evaluating classroom-based, interventions for young children who display disruptive behavior problems and/or deficits in behavioral and emotional self-regulation. Dr. Williford also mentors Ph.D. students in the Clinical & School Psychology Program and the Educational Psychology, Applied Developmental Science Program who have strong interests in conducting applied research in areas that are aligned with her research expertise.
This event was hosted by UVA School of Education and Human Development and University Advancement’s Office of Engagement.