We’re thrilled and proud that our Executive Director Professor Anne Douglass has been appointed Research Co-Director of the National Early Care and Education Workforce Center. She is one of four new directors who will set the center’s vision moving forward. The others are Rena Hallam, a professor of early education at the University of Delaware and Director for the Delaware Institute for Excellence in Early Childhood, who was appointed Research Co-Director; Brandy Jones Lawrence of ZERO TO THREE, who was appointed Technical Assistance Director, and Kathryn Tout of Child Trends, who was appointed Managing Director.

The center is a collaborative of five core partners, including Early Education Leaders, an Institute at UMass Boston. The others are Child Trends, the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at UC Berkeley, the Delaware Institute for Excellence in Early Childhood at the University of Delaware, and ZERO TO THREE. The center is staffed by 80+ individuals across its partner organizations, representing researchers, technical assistance specialists, subject matter experts, communicators, and project managers who collectively bring decades of expertise to the center.

Based on the outcomes of the center’s inaugural year and valuable feedback the organization has received from partners, it will be prioritizing its research and technical assistance efforts for the next 18 months on two aims:

• Early educators earn/are paid equitable, competitive compensation based on wage scales that are linked to qualifications and degrees and adjusted for changes in educational attainment and tenure in the field.
• Incumbent early educators receive the support they need to advance their competencies and progress in the ECE field.

These two aims represent the most pressing needs of the field, and are the issues most closely tied to the systemic inequities the center seeks to address. To achieve these aims, the center has refined its research-to-practice model to ensure it is well-positioned to support local and state leaders in implementing ECE systems change. Teams of researchers, technical assistance specialists, and communicators will bring content expertise, consultation, tools, and thought partnership to states and communities through intensive, targeted, and universal approaches—while ensuring the center’s research and resources get in the hands of people who can use them.