Sandra H. Petersen

Sometimes, I refer to myself as the Forrest Gump of early childhood. I have participated in the early stages of child care, early intervention, infant mental health, reflective supervision, home visiting, early learning guidelines, building state systems, and so much more. I have had the honor of learning from pioneers in each of those fields.

For most of the last two decades, I have nurtured the growth of Early Head Start through the Early Head Start National Resource Center (including being a primary contributor to the Head Start Early Learning Outcome Framework), promoting inclusion of infants and toddlers with disabilities through work with WestEd's Program for Infant Toddler Care (PITC), and supporting the workforce through textbooks written for Pearson and ZERO TO THREE.

I think my greatest strength is knowing current research and applying it to teaching practices for teachers, family child care providers, and home visitors.

I am currently working privately, doing contract writing for projects, supporting practice-based coaches through remote reflective supervision, and providing process consultation to programs.