A Bit About Me
As a teacher-researcher who worked with four- and five-year-olds in an independent school for girls for 37 years, I was witness to one thousand moments of brilliance every day. I have been engaged with the Reggio Emilia philosophy of early education for 25 of those 37 years. When I first began to explore Reggio principles, there was no local Reggio-inspired community, there were few opportunities to see firsthand what Reggio-inspired education looks like, and there was very little published in English. I traveled to Washington, DC and St. Louis to see schools that were exploring Reggio principles. And I learned that others across the country were searching for more as well. In 1996, a group of us formed the Lugano-Reggio Collaborative, spearheaded by colleagues at Virginia Tech. Together we traveled to Reggio Emilia, gathered (physically and virtually) to study aspects of the philosophy, presented at national conferences and wrote a book (Teaching And Learning: Collaborative Exploration of The Reggio Emilia Approach. See bibliography). In time, the collaborative disbanded, but many of its members have become central in advancing our understanding of children, teaching, and learning. I found my niche as a teacher-researcher, writing and consulting as time allowed.
Now, I enjoy working full time with educators who are exploring teaching and learning in these ways about which I am so passionate. I want to help you see the “one thousand moments” in front of you every single day you are with children and to know how to encourage them. I want to help you design your classrooms to support children’s investigations and representation. I want to offer you tools and strategies to help children develop a sense of agency that will astound you. I want to help you help your faculty (re)discover their own potential as curious, creative, innovative learners right alongside the children they teach.
Past and Current Projects
- Consulting Faculty at Sabot At Stony Point School, Richmond, VA
- Consultant at Bensley Elementary School, Chesterfield County, VA
- Consultant at Children First, Durham, NC
- 2019 Week-long residency at Colegio Hebreo Tarbut, Mexico City, Mexico
Sample of past speaking engagements
- Presenter with NAREA at 2019 NAEYC annual conference
- 2018, Keynote, Reggio Track, ASK Conference, Chapel Hill, NC
- 2013, 2015, 2017, Presenter, Sabot Institute For Teaching And Learning Symposium
- 2016, Presenter, Sabot Institute Open Doors
- 2015, Presenter, National Council Of Girls’ Schools annual conference
- 2011, Keynote, Lesley University Reggio Emilia conference
- 2009 Presenter, NAEYC annual conference, Washington DC
- 2009 Speaker for Innovations in Early Education Seminar Series, Wayne State University, Detroit
- Keynotes, Inspired Teaching Institute Conference, Ohio
- Presenter, NAEYC annual conference, Dallas, TX
- Presenter, NAEYC annual conference, Atlanta, GA
- Presenter, NAEYC annual conference, Washington DC
- Presenter and consultant, Syracuse University early childhood programs
- Presenter and discussant at a meeting of the Lugano Research Collaborative, Burlington, VT
- Presenter, NAEYC annual conference, Chicago
- Keynote for the Ohio Reggio Study Group colloquium, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio.
- Presenter for full day session for educators in the San Francisco Bay area, sponsored by the San Francisco Bay Area Reggio Group. Consultant, full day study with the sponsoring group itself
- Presenter, NAEYC annual conference, New York City
- Presenter and consultant, Gallaudet University Demonstration Schools
- Keynote, Wisconsin Reggio Network annual conference, Milwaukee, WI
- Presenter, Virginia Association of Independent Schools, Richmond, VA
- Presenter at the conference, “Recasting the Reggio Emilia Approach to Inform Teaching in the United States, A Landscape of Possibilities.” Blacksburg, VA
- Keynote, Innovations in Early Education Seminar Series, Detroit, MI
- Keynote, Annual conference of the Rocky Mountain Reggio Group, Denver, CO
- Presenter, two sessions during the National Association for the Education of Young Children annual conference, Atlanta, GA
- Keynote, Butler University Reggio Series, Indianapolis, IN
To contact me, please fill in the form below, and I’ll get right back to you.
Photo credit: Lella Gandini