Agenda

Steven Barnett is Board of Governors Professor of Education and Founding Co-Director of NIEER at Rutgers University. Dr. Barnett is an economist, and his work focuses on ECE policies that significantly enhance the development and well-being of all young children, but especially those who are economically and socially disadvantaged.

Dr. Lori Connors-Tadros is a recognized national leader in early care and education policy and research and provides technical assistance to states to use research to craft and implement effective policies. She has 45+ years of experience as a preschool special education teacher, state early education administrator, researcher, and technical assistance specialist. Lori has deep expertise in comprehensive state early childhood systems, finance and governance for effective policy implementation, leadership and agency capacity to implement policy and improve access, and research and policy to improve outcomes for young children. Dr. Connors-Tadros has led numerous federally funded technical assistance centers funded by federal agencies, including the Center on Enhancing Early Learning Outcomes, providing technical assistance to state early childhood administrators and other stakeholders across the country on key policy priorities. Lori has a Ph.D. in Developmental and Educational Psychology, MS in early childhood special education. Lori serves as the Vice Chair of the Board of the National Parents as Teachers Home Visiting Program.

Dr. Figueras-Daniel is an Assistant Research Professor and Bilingual ECE Policy Specialist at the National Institute for Early Education Research. She currently leads three projects related to supporting dual language learners and the Latine workforce and is a co-author of the Classroom Assessment of Supports for Emergent Bilingual Acquisition (CASEBA) and the teacher facing version, titled, the Self-Evaluation of Supports for Emergent Bilingual Acquisition (SESEBA).

Dr. Ellen Frede is a developmental psychologist specializing in early childhood education and currently serves as Senior Co-Director at the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University. In this role, she applies what she has learned throughout her long and varied career in ECE. Starting as a teacher in inclusive infancy through elementary classrooms, she then became a curriculum and professional development specialist at the HighScope Foundation, a teacher educator at The College of New Jersey, a researcher, the pre-k administrator for the New Jersey Department of Education, education lead in a multi-state Head Start grantee and early learning lead at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Her particular interests include designing early learning systems birth to grade 3 that ensure integration and continuity of learning standards, assessment, curriculum and professional development; measuring classroom quality in the context of continuous improvement systems; enhancing supports for emergent bilingual children; and including children with disabilities in general education classrooms.

Dr. Grafwallner is currently a consultant with the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), where he worked in the capacity of a Program Director for Early Childhood Education Initiatives from 2016 to 2021. At CCSSO, he focused on state policies to improve learning opportunities for young learners, PreK to grade 3, which included the promotion of PreK expansion, ECE workforce policies, curricular initiatives, and state policies to establish family engagement frameworks. He also advised the Early Childhood Education Collaboratives which are now joined by members from 23 state education agencies.
Prior to joining the Council, Dr. Grafwallner worked on early childhood policy and school reform as an Assistant State Superintendent at the Maryland State Department of Education, where he coordinated a long-term systems building process for early education in Maryland, including early assessment systems, consolidation of early care and education programs at the Maryland State Department of Education, expansion of PreK, and statewide all-day Kindergarten. He has been a teacher, program director and administrator prior to joining the Department.

Dawn Kalkman is an education consultant with the Michigan Department of Education, Office of Great Start/Out-of-School Time Learning. In her role she partners with Intermediate School Districts to administer the state-funded preschool program, Great Start Readiness Program. Dawn also oversees Intermediate School District budgets, policies, and programs and is active in statewide early childhood systems collaboration. Previously, she worked as an early childhood administrator for an Intermediate School District, a regional manager for a Head Start agency, and a preschool classroom teacher. Dawn participated in Michigan’s 2019–20 Education Policy Fellowship Program.

Noel has been a member of the Executive Committee since 2018 and has served as both president and vice president. She is an Assistant Professor of Teacher Education at Saginaw Valley State University, where she focuses on family engagement, Multi-Tiered Systems of Support for early childhood, and family literacy efforts. Prior to this position, Noel was the Director of Early Childhood Development and Family Education at the Michigan Department of Education (MDE). She also supported the MDE as an Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Part C program coordinator and an Early Literacy and Family Engagement Consultant. Noel has experience as a program administrator, classroom teacher, early intervention specialist, home visitor, and consultant. She earned a doctorate in early childhood education with a focus in special education from Oakland University.

Heather Lucas is an Education Consultant at the Michigan Department of Education in the Office of Great Start. In her role with the department, Heather provides support and oversight for the Great Start Readiness Program (GSRP), Michigan's state-funded preschool program for four-year-old children. In addition to her work with GSRP, she is the current Governing Board President for the Michigan Association for the Education of Young Children, and a Waters Center for Systems Thinking Credentialed Facilitator.

Nicole Madore is the Early Childhood Specialist on the Early Learning Team at the Maine Department of Education. She oversees pre-K policy in the public setting and provides technical assistance, professional development, and resources for best practices to early childhood educators and administrators. Previously, Nicole worked as an itinerant special education teacher, a multi-age public school classroom teacher, and a team leader for Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Part B, 619. She holds a bachelor’s and a master’s in early childhood education.

Jana Martella is happily retired in Washington, DC while remaining active in the early childhood system through nonprofit board and higher education leadership initiatives. Throughout her more than forty year career in education she supported and led programs aimed at improving outcomes for children and families across the Nation and around the world. Among her proudest achievements was co-directing the Center on Enhancing Early Learning Outcomes for seven years, including five years planning, implementing and running one of its flagship projects, the CEELO Leadership Academy. Before CEELO, Jana was Executive Director of NAECS-SDE – the former name of NASLEE, which followed her tenure as Director of Early Childhood and Family Education at CCSSO. Jana also enjoyed six-years of expat life with her family oversees, and spent five years as federal liaison for the WA State Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. She began her career in education as an elementary school teacher.

Appointed by State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond in May 2019, Sarah
Neville-Morgan serves as the Deputy Superintendent for the Opportunities for All Branch
(OFAB) at the California Department of Education (CDE) to support California’s 6 million
students reach their educational potential. In this role, Neville-Morgan oversees a branch with a
budget of over $10 billion that includes five divisions – Early Education, Expanded Learning,
Multilingual Support, Nutrition Services, and Special Education. This branch is leading many of
the state’s recent budget investments to transform the educational system, including
implementation of universal meals, universal prekindergarten for all four-year-old children and
targeted universalism for three-year-olds, as well as increased access to expanded learning
afterschool programs, supports for dual language immersion programs, and enhanced special
education supports.
Prior to being named Deputy Superintendent, Neville-Morgan served as Director of CDE’s Early
Learning and Care Division and, as the Child Care and Development Fund State Administrator,
provided leadership to ensure high-quality early learning and care programs for young children
and their families. She also has served as Deputy Director of Program Management at First 5
California, Deputy Executive Director of the California Early Learning Council, as an Academic
Child Development Specialist at the UC Davis Center for Child and Family Studies, worked in a
childcare resource and referral agency, was an infant/toddler and preschool teacher, and was a
supplementary elementary and a long-term kindergarten substitute teacher.
Additionally, Neville-Morgan is a fellow in the Annie E Casey Foundation’s Children and Family
Fellowship. During the 22-month fellowship, she is joining 14 other diverse leaders to lead and
sustain major equity-driven measurable improvements and system reforms and community
change initiatives that benefit large numbers of children, youth, and families.

John Pruette is a Senior Policy Consultant for EducationCounsel, a mission-based education consulting firm based in Washington, DC. Currently, his work is focused on improving the quality and alignment of early childhood education systems through the strengthening of statewide and district-level infrastructure, teacher and leadership preparation, and continuous quality improvement efforts.
 
John has over thirty years of experience in early education, policy and advocacy, and state government. His professional experiences include: Senior Program Officer, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Executive Director, North Carolina Office of Early Learning; and Program and Policy Chief, Office of the Governor (NC). His influence in the early childhood field is most notably seen in the nationally recognized, exemplar pre-k program, More at Four (now NC Pre-K). He has served on many state and national boards, commissions, and committees focused on early education and is a Past President of the National Association of State Leaders in Early Education (NASLEE). John began his career as a kindergarten curriculum specialist and early childhood classroom teacher in Guilford County Schools in North Carolina.

Dr. Kelli Servizzi is the Director of Kindergarten Readiness at the Indiana Department of Education. Her 21 years of experience in education include working as an assistant professor of special education and a developmental preschool, kindergarten, K–4 resource, and 5th–6th grade intensive intervention teacher. Her first job was Director of Communications for USA Diving, where she managed the website, magazine, and media relations. Kelli completed her bachelor’s degree in journalism and master’s in special education at Butler University. She earned a master’s degree in educational administration and a doctorate in elementary education, early childhood, and reading from Ball State University. Kelli is the secretary and the chair of the communications committee for NASLEE.

Anna Severens has a Master’s degree in Leadership and Policy in Early Care and Education from Wheelock College in Boston, MA and has over 25 years of experience in this field. She has served with the Nevada Department of Education for the last 16 years serving as the State PreK Administrator and Education Programs Professional. During this time she has served on the NevAEYC State Board, Nevada State Early Childhood Advisory Council (ECAC), Governor's Commission for National Service, been a member and served on the Executive Committee of the National Association for State Leaders in Early Education (NASLEE, formerly known as NAECS-SDE), was a CEELO (Center on Enhancing Early Learning Outcomes) Fellow, and led several state teams with The National P-3 Center leading Nevada's B-3 (Birth-3rd Grade) efforts for the last 10 years. Her main work and passion include providing support and technical assistance to NV State PreK subgrantees and State PreK expansion and program management, Birth-3rd grade alignment (P-3/B-3), and Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) Kindergarten to name a few.

Robin Wilkins is an Education Program Development Specialist with the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE), Division of Early Childhood Education, where she develops policy, provides technical assistance, and serves on New Jersey’s Quality Rating Improvement System (QRIS) Leadership Team. Robin has also served as the Director of Professional Development for Teaching Strategies and was part of the Center on Enhancing Early Learning Outcomes (CEELO) Leadership Academy in 2018. A versatile professional with over 20 years in the field of early childhood education, Robin has also worked in Head Start, community-based programs, and school district settings.