Speakers:

Walter S. Gilliam, PhD

Walter S. Gilliam is the Director of The Edward Zigler Center in Child Development and Social Policy and Associate Professor of Child Psychiatry and Psychology at the Child Study Center, Yale School of Medicine. He is a fellow at Zero to Three and the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER), and served as a senior advisor to the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).

Dr. Gilliam is co-recipient of the 2008 Grawemeyer Award in Education for the coauthored book A Vision for Universal Preschool Education.

Dr. Gilliam’s research involves early childhood education and intervention policy analysis (specifically how policies translate into effective services), ways to improve the quality of prekindergarten and child care services, the impact of early childhood education programs on children’s school readiness, and effective methods for reducing classroom behavior problems and reducing the incidence of preschool expulsion.

Tong Liu, PhD

Dr. Tong Liu is an Associate Research Scientist at the Yale University Child Study Center. She has published over 40 journal articles on early education in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, the United Kingdom, and Germany, focusing on cross-national approaches to early education. She is the chief translator of the 2005 book, A University for the 21 century, Peking University Press.

Dr. Liu is the Executive Director of the Yale-China Program on Child Development, a program that creates an early childhood education bridge between China and the US by training Chinese early education teachers, directors, and officials; conducting collaborative research between institutions of higher education in the US and China; and fostering educational exchanges for doctoral students, postdoctoral fellows, and scholars in early childhood education.

Ms. Stephanie Olmore

Stephanie Olmore is the Director of Quality Enhancement Initiatives at the National Association for the Education of Young Children, she leads the association’s international efforts. Bringing customized support to early childhood communities by adapting NAEYC’s resources and expertise into culturally appropriate packages that support optimal early learning and are based on developmentally appropriate practice.

Ms. Kate Thomas

Kate Thomas manages International Projects for the National Association for the Education of Young Children. With more than 10 years of experience in education (7 internationally) and 4 years of management experience, she is a certified Project Management Professional, has a Master's of Art in Teaching young children and a Bachelor's of Science in Applied Behavior Analysis. Before joining NAEYC in 2013, Kate managed education projects internationally and has lived in China, Portugal, and Rwanda. She contributed to the development of the teacher preparation curriculum for Early Childhood Teacher certification in Rwanda and, most recently, successfully managed of the development of Early Learning Standards for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.