Mary Louise Hemmeter, Ph.D., is Professor in the Department of Special Education at Vanderbilt University. Her research focuses on effective instruction, social-emotional development, challenging behavior, and on coaching teachers.
She has been a principal investigator (PI) or co-PI on numerous projects funded by the U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services. Through her work on the National Center on Social Emotional Foundations for Early Learning and Institute of Education Sciences (IES)–funded research projects, she was involved in the development of the
Pyramid Model for Supporting Social Emotional Competence in Young Children and practice-based coaching, a model for supporting teachers in implementing effective practices.
She is currently the PI on on an IES–funded development project on programwide supports for implementing the
Pyramid Model, a co-PI on an IES developmental project on implementing the Pyramid Model in infant–toddler settings, and a co-PI on an IES efficacy study examining approaches to supporting teachers in implementing embedded instructions.
She is a co-author on the Connect4Learning Early Childhood Curriculum and the Teaching Pyramid Observation Tool (TPOT™). She was a coeditor of the
Journal of Early Intervention and President of the Council for Exceptional Childrenā€™s Division for Early Childhood (DEC). She received the Merle B. Karnes Service to the Division Award and the Mary McEvoy Service to the Field Award.
Dr. Sandall is Professor Emeritus at the University of Washington. She has directed personnel preparation projects, developed curriculum materials for all age groups, and published materials on educational practices to facilitate optimal outcomes for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers with disabilities.
Her scholarly interests are effective instructional practices for young children with disabilities in inclusive settings, the changing roles of teachers of young children, and effective approaches to professional development and knowledge utilization.
She was Principal Investigator of the National Center on Quality Teaching and Learning for the Office of Head Start; the Center continues its work as the EarlyEdU Alliance at Cultivate Learning at the UW. Dr. Sandall serves on the Division for Early Childhood (DEC) Commission on Recommended Practices and edited publications on the practices. She is on the editorial boards of Journal of Early Intervention and Topics in Early Childhood Special Education.
Dr. Gauvreau is a clinical faculty member and Field Director of the Special Education Program at the University of Washington. Dr. Gauvreau has extensive experience as a preschool special education teacher, home visitor, behavioral consultant, and teacher trainer, and has lead numerous trainings on early intervention and autism, inclusive education, promoting positive behavior support, and family centered practices.
Her research interests include effective special education teacher preparation and strategies for inclusive education. Dr. Gauvreau is principal investigator for a project exploring family centered practices in teacher education and serves on the editorial review board of Young Exceptional Children.
Dr. Joseph is the Bezos Family Distinguished Professor in Early Learning at the College of Education at the University of Washington, Seattle. She teaches courses, advises students, provides service and conducts research on topics related to early care and education.
Dr. Joseph has been involved in a number of research projects and training and technical assistance activities at the local, state and national levels related to child care quality, teacher preparation, and promoting children's social emotional development as well as preventing challenging behavior in early learning settings.
She is the Founding Executive Director of Cultivate Learning, and was the Principal Investigator and director of the Head Stat Center for Inclusion (Headstartinclusion.org) and Co‐PI of the National Center for Quality Teaching and Learning funded by the Office of Head Start. At Cultivate Learning she oversees the work of quality ratings in all licensed childcare and state prek programs in the state.
Ilene S. Schwartz, Ph.D., BCBA-D, is a professor in the area of special education at the University of Washington (UW) and the director of the Haring Center for Inclusive Education at UW. She earned her Ph.D. in child and developmental psychology from the University of Kansas and is a board-certified behavior analyst (BCBA-D). Dr. Schwartz has an active research and professional training agenda with primary interests in the areas of autism, inclusive education, professional ethics, and the sustainability of educational interventions. Dr. Schwartz is the director of Project DATA, a model preschool program for children with autism that has been in operation since 1997 and was started as a model demonstration project with Office of Special Education Funding from the US Department of Education. She is currently working on projects to improve the quality of inclusive services for students with disabilities and strategies that can be used to improve access to services for young children with ASD in under resourced areas.
