Dr. Erin Barton is an international educational consultant and Faculty for the Pyramid Model Consortium. She has worked in the field of education for over thirty years in many different capacities including as a special education teacher, family coach, and university professor. She has developed the training materials and coaching tools for supporting the use of evidence‐based practices in natural and inclusive settings.
She is a Board‐Certified Behavior Analyst and directs research projects related to evidence‐based practices for young children, policies and practices that support high quality inclusion, and effective professional development systems. Dr. Barton is an active scholar with over 120 publications in major journals, multiple chapters, and several textbooks related to evidence‐based practices. Dr. Barton serves on several editorial boards and is the Editor-in-Chief of Topics in Early Childhood Special Education. She has received many honors including the 2021 Peabody Faculty Excellence Award: Service to Students and 2020 Chancellor’s Faculty Fellow at Vanderbilt University. She also was honored with the 2019 Merle B. Karnes Award for Service to the Division for Early Childhood and the 2017 Distinguished Early Career Research Award from the Division for Research of the Council for Exceptional Children.
Dr. Smith received her master's degree in early childhood special education and doctorate in special education and public policy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her areas of interest include early childhood special education/early intervention policies, systems and program development; leadership and collaboration; and the scaling up of evidence-based practices.
Dr. Smith has held early childhood and early childhood special education positions for the past thirty five years including early childhood teacher, Executive Director of the Division for Early Childhood (DEC) of the Council for Exceptional Children; Policy Specialist, Council for Exceptional Children (CEC); and Program Specialist, Office of Special Education Programs, US Department of Education. She has served as a consultant on state and national early childhood policy, expert witness in right to treatment litigation, prepared and delivered legislative testimony to the Congress as well as state legislatures, and has worked with many parent and professional groups in their state policy efforts.
In an effort to help shape quality inclusive early childhood environments for all children, including those with special needs, she has worked closely for many years with NAEYC and other early childhood leadership organizations including serving on the NAEYC Commission to develop the current program accreditation criteria. Dr. Smith has authored over 20 peer-reviewed journal articles, and 15 books and chapters one of which was the first book for administrators on preschool inclusion: The Administrator's Policy Handbook for Preschool Mainstreaming (1993). She also chaired the most recent effort to establish the DEC Recommended Practices in Early Intervention/Early Childhood Special Education to help guide the field in improving services for young children with special needs, their families and those who work with them.
She is currently Co-Principal Investigator of an OSEP funded doctoral program at UCD in early intervention and early childhood special education policy and collaborative leadership, and is involved in the OSEP funded national Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center (ECTA). She is the recipient of several awards and honors.
Dr. Brandy M. Locchetta is an Assistant Professor of Special Education and coordinator of the Applied Behavior Analysis program at the University of West Georgia. She graduated from Vanderbilt University with a Ph.D. in Special Education and Applied Behavior Analysis. Brandy has worked in a wide variety of roles at various system levels in early childhood and special education since 2001. Brandy brings a tremendous passion and wealth of experience and expertise to the areas of early childhood inclusion, applied behavior analysis in schools, special education law and policy, social-emotional development, social justice issues in education, and practitioner preparation.
Debbie Cate, M.S., is a technical assistance (TA) specialist with the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute (FPG) at the University of North Carolina (UNC). Her work within the Trohanis Technical Assistance Projects is with the Early Childhood TA Center (ECTA), and the Center for IDEA Early Childhood Data Systems (DaSy) Center. Her current work supports states in their provision of early childhood special education services in accordance with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), for children ages birth through grade three and their families. She has extensive experience in developing and implementing state systems and processes to provide effective IDEA preschool services, evaluating and monitoring state and local systems leading to improved results, defining and using state data to inform practice and process, and in strategic state planning to enhance comprehensive early childhood systems, all to support positive outcomes for young children and their families.
Jaclyn (Jackie) D. Joseph, Ph.D., BCBA-D, is Executive Director at the Rise School of Denver, Colorado. Dr. Joseph has been involved in research and technical assistance for the LEAP Model, Pyramid Model, Prevent-Teach-Reinforce for Young Children, and Prevent-Teach-Reinforce for Families. Dr. Joseph’s professional and research interests include young children with challenging behavior and interventions for improving their social-emotional competence. She also is dedicated to promoting and advocating for high-quality inclusive early care and education opportunities for all young children, and especially for her determined, strong, and amazing little girl who has a rare genetic syndrome.
Katy McCullough, M.A., is a Senior TA Specialist and Co‑PI/Associate Director of the national Early Childhood TA (ECTA) Center within the Trohanis Technical Assistance (TA) Projects at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at UNC Chapel Hill. Katy also serves as PI on two FPG subcontracts: the Center for IDEA Fiscal Reporting (CIFR) and the Center for IDEA Early Childhood Data Systems (DaSy). Katy leads the ECTA Web and Information Unit, providing oversight and direction to the center's product development and Web presence. She provides TA to IDEA Early Intervention/Part C and Preschool Special Education/Part B, Section 619 Coordinators and staff in states supporting system change on topics such as finance, early childhood inclusion and effective TA practices.
Elizabeth A. Steed, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Early Childhood Education program at the University of Colorado Denver. Prior to being a professor, Dr. Steed was an early interventionist and special education teacher in a variety of home‑based and community‑based settings. Now, she teaches graduate and doctoral courses and conducts research on promoting the social‑emotional competence of all young children, including children with disabilities, children with early mental health issues, and children who are culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD). Her research aims to address long‑standing disparities in access to high‑quality inclusive early childhood education and early mental health supports for marginalized child populations. Dr. Steed has been the PI or Co‑PI on numerous grants, including research grants and personnel preparation grants to build future leaders and researchers in early childhood intervention. She has also been a consultant for the National Center for Pyramid Model Innovations, the Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center, and the World Bank.
