Nurturing the Nurturer: Elevating Educator Well-Being and Competencies Through Comprehensive Wellness Programs
“When I am stressed and negative, I feel like it is harder to relate with kids. I often feel stressed, so the quality of the interaction is much different than the usual ones.
When I am happy, even young children see that. When I am not happy, they also know that quickly. However, certain children and situations are difficult to handle, which negatively impacts my health and well-being.
I wish we had more support on handling behavioral problems and challenging situations, not just from the professionals but also the parents.”
- Toddler Teacher
Why Educator Well-Being is Important
A happy, healthy, and responsive early childhood education (ECE) workforce is a cornerstone of high-quality care.
Their role is foundational for child development and society’s well-being and prosperity. Consistent with research, this quote from an ECE teacher demonstrates a cascading effect from suboptimal teacher well-being to lower interaction quality and poorer child social-emotional responses (Jeon et al., 2014; Kwon et al., 2019).
Happy, healthy teachers are even more critical for infants and toddlers, and children who experience various adversities, as these children benefit even more from high-quality care (Kwon et al., 2020; La Paro et al., 2012). However, recent studies have demonstrated that many ECE teachers face challenges with high job demands and limited resources, resulting in high levels of stress and poor health (Farewell et al., 2023). COVID-19 worsened these pre-existing issues globally (Gromada et al., 2020). Many challenges jeopardize children’s well-being and optimal development, especially those facing additional adversities such as poverty (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2024).
Addressing the well-being of teachers is complex and multifaceted and requires a comprehensive and holistic approach to positively impact the quality of care and child outcomes.
While early education is the cornerstone of child development, and investments in frontline educators’ well-being will likely pay dividends for future generations, the field lacks robust research evidence on effective strategies for promoting educators’ well-being and innovative intervention models that have demonstrated success.
Wellness Interventions at Work
Given the urgent need to support the well-being of the early childhood education workforce, especially those who work with children and families facing various adversities such as EHS/HS educators, the Administration for Children and Families of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services funded six wellness intervention projects of HS University Partners in 2021.
The funding opportunity supported researchers testing existing, modified, or new intervention models that directly target improving EHS/HS educators’ well-being, higher classroom quality, and improved child outcomes.
This article introduces these six models of comprehensive and innovative wellness interventions designed to enhance EHS/HSstaff well-being, led by researchers at Georgetown University (GT), University of Colorado (CO), University of Nebraska (UNL), University of Oklahoma (OU), University of Texas, Houston (UT), and University of Virginia (UVA), respectively.
ECE Wellness Model Comparison Chart
Explore these six models of comprehensive and innovative wellness interventions designed to enhance EHS/HS staff well-being.
MODEL
Georgetown University (GT)
MAJOR COMPONENTS
PROMISE – Designed to help ECE leaders create a culture of well-being in their centers by offering them and their staff wellness resources in the form of an online course and an 11-week wellness group.
DIRECT TARGET OUTCOMES
Knowledge and practices: emotional regulation, mindfulness, self-compassion, healthy habits
Staff well-being: stress, burnout, depressive symptoms, compassion satisfaction, self-efficacy
Organizational capacity: Leadership, wellness culture, co-worker support
INDIRECT OUTCOMES
Staff retention
Teacher-student relationships
LENGTH/INTENSITY
One program year. Includes staff access to TeacherWISE.
One CPR2 group/site for 11 weeks. Leaders meet twice monthly.
Number of Participants
2 cohorts of Early Head Start centers (N=28 sites)
MODEL
University of Colorado (CO)
MAJOR COMPONENTS
WELL – Incorporates well-being promotion strategies at all levels of the socio-ecological model focusing on the four key topic areas of mindfulness, positive coping, psychological coping, and sleep.
DIRECT TARGET OUTCOMES
Overall worker well-being (measured by the NIOSH WellBQ), burnout and turnover
INDIRECT OUTCOMES
Child social- emotional outcomes
LENGTH/INTENSITY
One program year; includes 2 professional development sessions, 2 Facts and Snacks sessions, monthly wellness team meetings, wellness challenges, and mobile WELL, messaging
Number of Participants
3 cohorts of approximately 10 Head Start centers each (n= 29 sites, ~360 staff)
MODEL
University of Nebraska (UNL)
MAJOR COMPONENTS
CHIME – Through facilitated reflection and engaging in mindfulness and compassion-based activities linked to SEL, it provides educators with SEL knowledge and with strategies for recognizing and responding to emotion in the classroom. These practices are shared with families through family engagement specialists and family nights.
DIRECT TARGET OUTCOMES
Knowledge and practices: social-emotional competence, wellbeing, mindfulness, compassion, emotional regulation, stress reactivity
Psychosocial work environments: leadership support, team wellness, workplace climate.
Work-related well-being: positive coping at work
Classroom interactions and relationships: teacher-child relationships, emotional support, partnerships with families
INDIRECT OUTCOMES
Child social- emotional outcomes
LENGTH/INTENSITY
Program facilitated by an internal EHS/HS staff delivered over 8 weeks
Number of Participants
Community-engaged research to co-refine and adapt CHIME with 120 EHS/HS education staff and 360 children/families, 10 directors
MODEL
University of Oklahoma (OU)
MAJOR COMPONENTS
Happy Teacher Wellness Intervention – Five tiers with different elements, including Fitbit use, online modules on physical, psychological, and professional wellness, individualized wellness coaching, a wellness room, additional staff, and healthy snacks
DIRECT TARGET OUTCOMES
Physical Well-being: Physical activity, obesity, general health conditions, sleep, ergonomic pain, and hydration
Psychological Well-being: hope, stress, depressive symptoms, stress management
Professional Well-being: commitment, self-efficacy, leadership
Relational Well-being: teacher-child relationships
INDIRECT OUTCOMES
Staff retention
Classroom quality emotional/behavioral support and instructional support
Child social-emotional outcomes
LENGTH/INTENSITY
Weekly delivery of components for 10 weeks
Number of Participants
504 teachers and 178 leaders in urban and rural settings and tribal nations in 72 HS centers in Oklahoma completed the intervention and surveys.
MODEL
University of Texas, Houston (UT)
MAJOR COMPONENTS
CARE – Emotion skills instruction; mindfulness and stress management strategies; and compassion practices
DIRECT TARGET OUTCOMES
Psychological Well-being: depressive symptoms, emotion regulation
Physical Well-being: sleep disturbance
Professional Well-being: occupational burnout, co-worker relations
Relational Well-being: teacher-child relationships
INDIRECT OUTCOMES
Classroom interactions quality: harshness, team teaching
Child social-emotional outcomes
LENGTH/INTENSITY
Three 6-hour in-person group training sessions; a 2-hour virtual booster session; and ongoing support through weekly/biweekly emails through a program year
Number of Participants
Approximately 480 educators from 90 sites across three cohorts (Cohort 1: 105 educators from 16 sites)
MODEL
University of Virginia (UVA)
MAJOR COMPONENTS
Well-Being First – Three full day all staff training, collaborative group processing, leadership training, monthly consultations, and well-being toolkits.
DIRECT TARGET OUTCOMES
Knowledge and practices: resilience, wellness, and organizational well-being.
Psychosocial work environments: leadership support, professional relationships, workplace safety, and inclusive climate.
Work-related well-being: coping, emotional exhaustion, job satisfaction, turnover, and burnout. Classroom interactions and relationships
INDIRECT OUTCOMES
Child social, emotional behavioral and cognitive outcomes
LENGTH/INTENSITY
Three full-day (6 hours each) in-person all staff training within three months; Four-hour virtual leadership training; Six months of implementation and monthly consultation calls.
Number of Participants
n= 163 in the treatment group and 299 in the control group from 9 EHS/HS grantees.
Project Overviews
This funding opportunity supported researchers testing existing, modified, or new intervention models that directly target improving early childhood education workforce well-being, higher classroom quality, and improved child outcomes.
(Georgetown University, PI: Celene Domitrovich, co-PI: Dominique Charlot-Swilley)
The Promoting Resilience and Mental Health in Educational Settings for Early Childhood (PROMISE) program is a multi-component intervention designed to foster a culture of wellness in early learning environments by targeting individual and organizational factors contributing to staff stress, burnout, and mental health. It is being implemented in partnership with three EHS programs in D.C. and evaluated in a randomized clinical trial with 28 centers. The intervention includes a self-paced, online course called TeacherWISE designed to promote well-being across five domains: physical, occupational, intellectual, social, and emotional. The course is offered to all staff. Educators needing more support are offered Compassion, Practice, Relationships, and Restoration (CPR2), a group-based component facilitated by a licensed mental health clinician (Charlot-Swilley et al., under review). CPR2 is a safe and supportive space that fosters a sense of community among early educators where they can share experiences, build emotional resilience, and develop coping strategies together. CPR2 is grounded in group therapy practices and mindfulness principles. Leaders at sites participating in PROMISE receive implementation support through a community of practice that meets twice a month. In a small feasibility study of the program in six HS centers, nearly half of the staff completed the entire TeacherWISE course (49%). Based on implementation ratings, the perceived impact for each module, platform usability, and perceived value of the program’s educational content was high. In this pilot, CPR2 groups were delivered at each site, and most participants attended nine or more of the 11 sessions (90%). Focus group participants reported that they appreciated the time to connect with their colleagues in a new way and that facilitators created a space that made sharing easy. They found the stress management content helpful.
(University of Colorado, PIs: Jini Puma and Charlotte Farewell)
The Well-being of the Early Childhood Education Workforce in Low-Resourced Locations (WELL) intervention is a multi-level, multi-strategy program, currently being implemented via partnerships with five HS agencies in Colorado. The WELL study was developed using community-based participatory research methods and rooted in 15 years of HS-University Partnerships. A stepped wedge cluster randomized controlled trial with three cohorts of approximately 10 HS centers each (n= 29 sites) is being conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention. The intervention incorporates well-being promotion strategies at all levels of the socio-ecological model, focusing on the four key topic areas of mindfulness, positive coping, psychological coping, and sleep, which were identified as areas of need in a baseline survey. The multi-level program supports include professional development opportunities and a texting campaign (individual-level supports); social connectedness (interpersonal-level supports); and making health-promoting policy, systems, and environmental supports (organizational-level supports).
The preliminary feasibility of WELL after Cohort 1 implementation was assessed using mixed methods (n=10 sites; survey n = 56 – 190 staff; interview n = 27 staff). Preliminary data suggests the intervention is acceptable, feasible, and adaptable, with 100% of participants agreeing that WELL program activities are appealing, that the activities seemed doable, and that the materials were easy to use. Short-term outcomes are being met, with 94% of ECE staff reporting a better understanding of the benefits of mindfulness, 92% reporting they intend to set goals related to mindfulness, 84% of participants reporting improved attitudes related to using sleep to support their well-being, and 90% reporting improved confidence related to healthy sleep practices to promote their well-being. Medium- (e.g., improved worker well-being of ECE providers) and long-term (e.g., decreased ECE provider burnout and turnover) outcomes will be assessed after implementation of Cohort 3 programming (2025-2026).
(The University of Nebraska, PIs: Holly Hatton and Carrie Clark)
When we think of how we “nurture the nurturer,” one key aspect is having support for ECE emotional well-being. The work of early childhood education is emotionally evocative, and research identifies emotion regulation and emotional health as a key determinant of health and well-being (Jeon et al., 2016). Cultivating Healthy Intentional Mindful Educators (CHIME, Hatton-Bowers et al., 2023) focuses on social-emotional learning (SEL) of both educators and the children in their care and focuses on mindfulness and compassion. Internal staff within EHS and HS programs are trained to become CHIME facilitators. Sessions facilitate reflection, mindfulness, and compassion-based activities linked to SEL over eight weeks.
To evaluate CHIME, we collected pre-, post-, and 3-month post-intervention data (teacher surveys), in-classroom heart rate variability, emotion regulation tasks, observed classroom interactions, school-family relationships, and child outcomes. In feasibility and acceptability data among 87 ECE teachers, 97% agreed that the program aligned with their cultural beliefs, and 96% agreed it was beneficial. In focus groups with Facilitators and Directors/Administrators, there was overall shared enthusiasm and agreement that CHIME positively impacted ECE teachers, highlighting the ripple effects, “Our team has experienced significant improvements in stress management, emotional regulation, and overall mental health. These benefits have not only enriched the lives of our educators but have also had a profound impact on the learning environment for our young learners.” These findings highlight the program’s role in fostering a supportive and mindful work culture. When comparing data for 58 teachers before and after participation, ECE teachers in CHIME showed significant improvements in their capacity to respond less reactively to emotional stressors and enhance their abilities to model effective strategies for children to manage their emotions.
(University of Oklahoma: PIs: Kyong-Ah Kwon and Timothy G. Ford)
The interdisciplinary Happy Teacher Wellness Intervention team comprises experts from ECE, physical therapy, biomedical engineering, psychology, interior design, economics, human relations, and educational technology. They developed and implemented a five-tier, 10-week intervention for EHS/HS teachers and leaders’ holistic well-being (e.g., physical, psychological, and professional well-being) in Oklahoma. Once centers were recruited, they were each randomly assigned to one of the five tiers. Tier 0 was a control group, while Tiers 1-4 were intervention groups, with higher tiers incorporating more intervention elements. The components include (a) wearing a Fitbit (a wearable tracking device), (b) online wellness modules, and (c) individualized wellness coaching (three meetings with a physical and psychological wellness coach and a professional wellness coach), as well as (d) providing additional staff for breaks and coaching meetings, healthy snacks, and access to a wellness room.
They evaluated the intervention using a mixed-method, Clustered Randomized Control Trial (RCT). Data collection involved surveys on participants’ well-being and observations on classroom quality, retention, child social-emotional assessments, and focus groups. Overall, 94% of participants reported a positive response about the program. From the analysis of the urban sample of 326 educators from 28 centers, the researchers found that the intervention has a positive impact on all aspects of well-being, but especially on psychological well-being (e.g., hope, depressive symptoms, stress management) for teachers. The program also positively impacted emotional/behavioral and instructional quality and children’s self-regulation. This highlights the importance of a holistic, center-wide, and interdisciplinary approach to improve outcomes for teachers, leaders, and children.
See more research from Kyong-Ah Kwon and the Happy Teacher Project.
(University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, PI: Yoonkyung Oh)
The Cultivating Awareness and Resilience in Education (CARE) program is a mindfulness-based professional learning initiative to support teachers’ well-being and social-emotional skills, empowering them to create positive, nurturing classrooms where educators and students can thrive. Using a mix of didactic instruction, hands-on activities, and interactive discussions, the program covers three key areas: (a) Emotion Skills Instruction, providing instructions on the neuroscience of emotions and fostering reflection on emotional patterns and responses; (b) Mindfulness and Stress Management, offering self-care strategies to help teachers better aware of and regulate their emotions; and (c) Compassion Practices, cultivating empathy and compassion through practices like mindful listening and caring exercises. CARE has demonstrated effectiveness in elementary school settings, improving teacher well-being, supportive teacher-child interactions, student motivation, and academic engagement.
To adapt the program for ECE settings, it was modified with input from HS administrators and educators in Texas: three 6-hour in-person sessions, a 2-hour virtual booster session, and ongoing support via emails. A 2-hour virtual session for administrators was added to guide them in supporting educators’ CARE implementation. An RCT with three cohorts of EHS/HS educators in Texas is underway to evaluate the program’s effectiveness using teacher surveys, classroom observations, teacher-reported child behavior, and semi-structured interviews with a subgroup of educators. The first cohort RCT, which involved 105 consented educators from 60 classrooms across 16 sites, is complete. Preliminary findings from teacher self-reports and classroom observations suggest that CARE may improve the quality of classroom interactions—reducing harshness, enhancing lesson planning, and fostering teamwork—and promote teacher well-being by reducing sleep disturbances, gastrointestinal symptoms, and perceived job demands while building resilience.
(University of Virginia, PI: Lieny Jeon)
Informed by multiple evidence-based strategies from education, human services, and medicine, the Well-Being First (WBF) model was developed to support the well-being of the ECE workforce at both individual and organizational levels. WBF includes a three-day, all-staff training series covering topics, such as individual resilience strategies, healthy relationships, team-building, stressor identification, root cause analysis of stress, control/influence/affect practices, strengths and opportunities analysis, and collaborative group processing. Ongoing support for educators and leadership through monthly consultations, leadership training, and well-being toolkits were also provided.
To evaluate the efficacy of WBF in an RCT, mixed-methods were used involving pre-, mid- and post-, and follow-up surveys, along with satisfaction surveys and follow-up interviews. In addition, the intervention implementation data were used to help understand participants’ stressors and potential solutions. Responses to the pre-and mid-survey data from 141 educators in a treatment group revealed that the level of anxiety decreased after the training. Communication at the organization level, workload, adequate staffing, and children’s challenging behavior were the most frequently mentioned stressors by the participants. Satisfaction surveys indicated that group discussions, self-reflection prompts, and practicing strategies for coping with stress were the most beneficial components of the WBF training. Additionally, about 89% of the participants reported confidence in applying the training knowledge and skills to their jobs. A participant shared: “I have heard from many of the employees that they walked away from that first initial training feeling empowered, feeling that they were able to take some of the things that they learned about themselves from the training and to incorporate it into their daily lives or at least to try to.” Overall, feedback from educators suggests that comprehensive, collaborative, and culturally sensitive professional development interventions and ongoing support are valued.
Did you know? Mindfulness can help support both educators and children.
Studies show that mindfulness practices that are specific, ongoing, and led by an expert has an impact on educators in early childhood settings and on the children in their care.
Concluding Thoughts
Amid the child care crisis during and after COVID-19, there has been a surge of attention to improving early childhood educators’ well-being and working conditions in research, policy, and practice. For instance, the HS Performance Standards have recently been updated to enhance service quality and workforce support, focusing on equitable compensation and increased resources for staff well-being.
We have observed a growing number of studies on teacher well-being and more programs actively working to support educators. In line with these trends, it is timely for the federal government to provide funding for comprehensive wellness interventions to enhance the well-being of the ECE workforce. These six wellness models fill the void in the literature and offer promising strategies to support ECE educators. We hope these collective and concerted efforts among researchers, practitioners, and policymakers will significantly strengthen the ECE workforce and improve outcomes for the children and families they serve.
Related Resources
References
Charlot-Swilley, D., Zuskov, S., Curtis, L., Mitchell, S., & Anderson, E. (under review). Compassion, Practice, Relationship, and Restoration: A wellness group for frontline workers. Healthcare, Early Intervention for Infants and Toddlers with Developmental Delay, Disability, and Behavioral Health Considerations. Manuscript submitted for publication.
Gromada, A. Richardson, D., & Rees, G. (2020). Children in a global crisis: the impact of COVID-19 on work and family life. Innocenti Research Brief, Unicef, Office of Research–Innocenti.
Farewell, C. V., Guinlan, J., Gonzales, L., & Puma, J. (2022). Changes in demands and resources faced by the early childhood education workforce due to COVID-19, Journal of Early Childhood Research, 21, 1. https://doi.org/10.1177/1476718X221136463
Hatton-Bowers, Ho., Clark, C., Parra, G., Calvi, J., Yellow Bird, M., Avari, P., Foged, J., & Smith, J. (2023). Promising findings that the Cultivating Health Intentional Mindful Educators’ Program (CHIME) strengthens early childhood teachers’ emotional resources: An interative study. Early Childhood Education Journal, 51, 1291-1304.
Jeon, L., Buettner, C. K., & Snyder, A. R. (2014). Pathways from teacher depression and child-care quality to child behavioral problems. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 82, 225–235. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0035720.
Jeon, L., Hur, E., & Buettner, C. K. (2016). Child-care chaos and teachers’ responsiveness: The indirect associations through teachers’ emotion regulation and coping, Journal of School Psychology, 59, 83-96.
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Kwon, K., Jeon, S. Jeon, L., & Castle, S. (2019). The role of teachers’ depressive symptoms in classroom quality and children’s developmental outcomes in Early Head Start programs, Learning and Individual Differences, 74, 101748
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U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Administration on Children, Youth and Families, Children’s Bureau. (2024). Child Maltreatment 2022. Available from https://www.acf.hhs.gov/cb/data-research/child-maltreatment.
Authors
- Kyong-Ah Kwon, PhD (Corresponding Author), is Drusa B. Cable Endowed Chair and Professor at the Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education, the University of Oklahoma. She has expertise in early childhood workforce quality, well-being, and retention, infant toddler care and education, and child social-emotional development. Her recent work, the Happy Teacher Project on early childhood teachers’ well-being and working conditions, received national recognition and resulted in numerous peer-reviewed publications, presentations, and federal grant awards and policy changes in improving Head Start teacher well-being and working conditions. She serves as an executive editor of the special issue on infant toddler care and services for Early Childhood Research Quarterly.
- Jini Puma, PhD., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Community and Behavioral Health and the Associate Director of the Rocky Mountain Prevention Research Center (RMPRC) at the Colorado School of Public Health, University of Colorado – Anschutz Medical Campus. She has been the Principal Investigator (PI) or Co-PI on numerous federal, state and local research studies, including the WELL study. Dr. Puma received her doctorate in Quantitative Research Methods at the University of Denver in 2007. She has been implementing public health interventions and conducting program evaluations and research since then. Dr. Puma’s research and evaluation interests include early childhood obesity prevention, early childhood workforce mental health and well-being, refugee health and well-being, and adverse childhood experiences.
- Yoonkyung Oh, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and a researcher at the Children’s Learning Institute, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Her research focuses on advancing social and emotional competence and learning among educators and students. Currently, she leads the CARE for Head Start (HS) Educators project as Principal Investigator and contributes as Co-Investigator on multiple federally funded projects focused on examining the impacts of school—and family-based interventions designed to foster academic and social-emotional competencies, particularly among high-needs students and schools.
- Lieny Jeon, PhD, is the Jane Batten Bicentennial Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education at the University of Virginia School of Education and Human Development and the Director of Early Childhood Initiatives at the Baltimore Education Research Consortium. She directs the Well-being for Early Learning Lab (WELLab). WELLab studies early care and education, as well as the health and well-being of children, teachers, and families. WELLab also promotes equity in access and quality of educational and social services. WELLab maintains several collaborative partnerships with early childhood organizations in the community, and the objective of the learning lab is to more effectively translate research findings into valuable contributions towards improving the health, education, and well-being of children, caregivers, and communities.
- Holly Hatton, PhD, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, is an associate professor in child, youth, and family studies at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln, an Early Childhood Extension Specialist and the Program Area Leader for the Early Childhood Extension team. Her primary interests and scholarly activity include co-creating and implementing programs that aim to enhance the quality of early childhood development and care, with a particular focus on mental health, emotional well-being and social-emotional development. She is committed to addressing issues of systemic inequities in early care and education and brings these issues to the forefront of her work. Currently, she is a Principal Investigator for a 2-million-dollar Administration Children and Families Head Start University Partnership Grant to research the implementation of the Nebraska Extension Cultivating Healthy Intentional Mindful Educators program (CHIME) in Early Head Start and Head Start child care settings using community-based participatory methods.
- Timothy G. Ford, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies and Executive Director of the THRIVE Center at University of Oklahoma. He specializes in improving the working conditions and well-being of birth through 12th grade teachers and leaders, serving as co-founder of the Happy Leader and Happy Teacher Projects. He has over two decades of experience conducting and leading both policy and program evaluation studies. He is an expert in a wide range of rigorous qualitative and quantitative research designs and methodologies. His funded external grants total $3 million.
- Charlotte Farewell, PhD, is an Assistant Professor and the director of the MPH in Population Mental Health and Wellbeing (PMHW) program. Her PhD is in health and behavioral sciences from the University of Colorado. Her research is focused on using mixed methods to analyze developmental research questions, with a specific focus on maternal mental health (depression, stress, and anxiety) during the perinatal period in global contexts, the investigation of non-pharmaceutical methods that can be targeted and/or mobilized to promote maternal resilience in multi-ethnic and low resourced communities, and promoting mental and physical health among formal and informal caregivers and children in early childhood education settings.
- Celene Domitrovich, PhD, is the Director of Research for the Thrive Center for Children, Families, and Communities and a Research Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Georgetown University School of Medicine. She received her doctorate in child clinical psychology from Penn State University. Dr. Domitrovich is a prevention scientist who studies social and emotional learning and how interventions that foster this process in educational settings can promote positive development and academic learning. She has developed several interventions in collaboration with teachers and values research-practice partnerships that respect the wisdom of those working in educational settings and co-creation to develop and evaluate interventions.
- Carrie Clark, PhD, is an Associate Professor in Developmental and Learning Sciences in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She focuses on developing executive function and self-regulation, particularly during early childhood. She conducts research to determine how perinatal and early caregiving experiences shape children’s developmental pathways for self-regulation. She also researches how aspects of self-regulation, including cognitive control, emotion regulation strategies, reflection, and metacognition, contribute to learning and academic achievement, particularly in mathematics. She uses neuropsychological, neuroimaging, and physiological measures in her work.
- Dominique Charlot-Swilley, PhD, is Assistant Professor and Senior Research Policy at the Georgetown Thrive Center for Children, Families, and Communities. Her work is co-situated in early childhood and pediatric primary care. She has over two decades of experience working with infants, toddlers, and their families in Washington, DC, Baltimore, MD, and Miami, FL. In this capacity, Dr. Charlot-Swilley has been dedicated to intervention science that focuses on provider well-being, social-emotional learning, and early relational health. As a community-based researcher and mindfulness meditation teacher, the issues of social justice and systems equity are relevant in her work, as well as recognizing and incorporating Indigenous knowledge systems in data practices.
Acknowledgment
This project is supported by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) of the United States (U.S.) Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award (Grant #: 90YR0128, 90YR0129, 90YR0130, 90YR0131, 90YR0132, and 90YR0133) totaling $12,239,894 with 100 percent funded by ACF/HHS. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by ACF/HHS, or the U.S. Government. For more information, please visit the ACF website, Administrative and National Policy Requirements.
The incredibly intelligent, generous, collaborative, and productive group of people, who are part of the Head Start University Partnership Early Head Start/Head Start Workforce Well-Being Consortium, supported development of this manuscript. We appreciate the Federal Project Officers, Dr. Paula Daneri and Dr. Kathleen Dwyer, who have been an integral part of this collaborative work.
