麻豆传媒

Wendy Wagner Robeson, Ed.D., is a senior research scientist on the Work, Families, & Children Team. Her work at the Centers is focused on child development (birth to age 8), child care policy, early childhood care and education, and school readiness. Robeson began her career as a middle school language arts, reading, ESL and English teacher in Houston, Texas, after graduating from Boston University with a degree in education, math, and English. After finishing her master’s degree in early childhood education at the University of Houston, Robeson pursued her interest in children’s language development and psycholinguistics at Harvard Graduate School of Education and earned her doctoral degree. In addition, to her research, Robeson has taught at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Robeson’s vast body of work includes the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, which sought to determine the relationship between children's early experiences and their developmental outcomes, the Massachusetts Early Care and Education and School Readiness Study and the Ready Educators Quality Improvement Pilot.

Lucy Bassett is a Professor of Practice at the University of Virginia鈥檚 Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy and co-Director of the Humanitarian Collaborative, an applied research initiative focused on improving humanitarian response. Bassett鈥檚 research focuses on understanding how to best support young children in humanitarian and low-income contexts. Her recent work has involved evaluating the impact of programs for refugee and migrant children, assessing training and professional development needs for preschool teachers and school leaders, identifying models for childcare in emergency contexts, and understanding conditions of families and young children on the US/Mexico border. As of Fall 2022, she is launching a new project funded by the Lego Foundation to elevate children鈥檚 voices in emergency contexts and share their stories and experiences.

Before joining the University of Virginia, Bassett spent ten years as an education and social protection specialist with the World Bank leading projects and research on education and social protection at the World Bank, in countries from Bangladesh to Haiti and Serbia and Cameroon. Her practitioners鈥� perspective is further grounded by previous work at UNICEF, the World Food Programme, Save the Children, the International Food Policy Research Institute, and Peace Corps.

Bassett holds many high-level, international advisory roles. For example, she is a member of the Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies Early Childhood Development Working Group, Early Childhood Development Action Network Knowledge Fellows Steering Committee, and Research Forum on Early Childhood in Emergencies Steering Committee. She is also expert reviewer for numerous initiatives, such as the Lego Foundation鈥檚 Build a World of Play and American Institute of Research鈥檚 Scholars and Leaders Awards. In addition to her expertise in global early childhood research and practice, Bassett brings real-world experience as a pre-K teacher.

In addition to her expertise in international early childhood development, education, and childcare, Bassett focuses on feminist approaches to public policy and programming, co-creation and community engagement, and contemplative pedagogy. She won a University of Virginia All-University Teaching Award in 2021.

Chris Herbst is an expert in early childhood education and child care policy. Herbst’s research seeks to understand the ways in which redistributive tax and transfer programs affect the well-being of economically disadvantaged families. Herbst’s projects have examined the impact of child care, welfare and tax policy on low-skilled women’s employment and health trajectories as well as on children’s early cognitive and behavioral development. Herbst is an associate professor in the School of Public Affairs and a faculty affiliate in the School of Social Work in the Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions. His research has received media attention from such outlets as the New York Times, Five Thirty Eight, NPR, Bloomberg and more.

Dr Jamie Sisson is the Deputy Director of the Centre for Research in Educational and Social Inclusion (CRESI) in Education Futures at the University of South Australia. She has research expertise in the professional identity and agency of early childhood teachers, inclusive early childhood curriculum and pedagogy; and collaborative learning communities – investigating how children and adults come together with multiple perspectives to collaborate and co-construct knowledge. Dr Sisson’s recent research has explored how early childhood education in South Australia is re-imagined in terms of the rights extended to children within the early years, and on developing culturally responsive approaches to curriculum and pedagogy in diverse early childhood settings.
Since 2014, Dr Sisson has successfully attracted considerable external research funding. She was a Chief Investigator for the Children Learning to Live Together in Diverse Community project, funded by the Department of Education SA. She was also a Chief Investigator for the pilot project Reconceptualising Early Childhood Education in South Australia: Engaging Multiple Perspectives, funded by the Department for Education and Child Development and Catholic Education South Australia.
Dr Sisson received the highly coveted 2017 Early Career Researcher of the Year award from the Division of Education, Arts and Social Sciences at UniSA in recognition of her lead roles on multiple research projects. She has previously received nominations for the Early Career Researcher Award and Dissertation of the year award from the American Education Research Association’s Early Education and Child Development Special Interest Group.
In 2017 Dr Sisson co-authored the book Pedagogical documentation: A South Australian perspective. She has published a number of high impact journal articles including Communing to Re-imagine Figured Worlds, published in Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood and Teaching culture through culture: A case study of culturally responsive pedagogies in an Australian early childhood/primary context, published in the Journal of Research in Childhood Education. Her research publications have contributed to a growing international presence with invited presentations in China and the United States. Dr Sisson has been invited to present on topics concerning children’s learning through play, educator action research, early childhood policy and practice in Australia, and culturally responsive pedagogies in the early years.
In addition to her significant research contributions, Dr Sisson has supervised several higher degree by research students and has also developed materials for and taught a range of courses in teacher education programs within the United States and Australia. She has over ten years of experience working in a variety of early childhood care and education contexts with children from birth to age ten. Dr Sisson has served on the South Australian Early Childhood Australia Executive Board (2012-2015) and was elected the Vice President of Cleveland branch of the Association for the Education of Young Children (2006-2007).
 
Qualifications
Doctor of Philosophy Kent State University
Masters of Educational Studies The University of Queensland
Bachelor of Science in Human and Consumer Sciences The Ohio University