About CEED

Projects

Publications

Professional Development

Events

Partners & Links
 

Unless otherwise indicated, the address and fax number for all staff shown here is:
CEED, 40 Education Sciences Building, 56 East River Road, Minneapolis, MN
Fax: 612-625-2093

Amy Susman Stillman, Co-Director
Christopher Watson, Co-Director
Keith Vargo, CEED Administrator
Distinguished Colleagues

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Phone: 612-625-3058
antun005@umn.edu

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Phone: Assigned soon
besn0002@umn.edu

Tracy Bradfield Morgan is the project coordinator for the Assessment and Training Center (ATC) at CEED. ATC is a unique unit within the broader CEED structure, the goal of which is to transmit observation and assessment skill and knowledge to the greater early childhood community, for program evaluation and improvement purposes. Tracy also coordinates the IGDI Expansion project, the goals of which are to increase dissemination of the early language and literacy IGDIs, improve the current online data management system (Get It, Got It, Go!), and pursue funding streams to encourage further research and development.

Tracy received her Master of Science in Occupational Therapy from the University of Minnesota and worked as an educational occupational therapist for several years before returning to the University of Minnesota to pursue a doctorate in Educational Psychology with an emphasis on Early Childhood Special Education. Tracy is in the process of completing her dissertation, which focuses on examining the reliability and validity of general outcome measures of beginning handwriting development. 

Karen Cadigan, Ed.S., Ph.D.

Director of Outreach and Public Policy

Phone: 612-626-8723
Fax: 612-625-2093
Email: cadigan@umn.edu

Karen Cadigan is the Director of Outreach and Public Policy at the Center for Early Education and Development. She is a nationally certified school psychologist and worked in public schools for seven years with children across the age range, most recently as the coordinator of the Minneapolis Public Schools’ early childhood autism programs. She worked as a research assistant for several projects including the Preschool Families Project at the University of Washington, examining perseverating behavior problems in preschool boys, and the Improving Preschoolers’ Reading Outcomes through Measurement and Intervention in Classroom Environments (I’PROMICE) project at the University of Minnesota.

Her current teaching, training, and research efforts focus on early childhood assessment, early literacy development, autism in early childhood, and linking early childhood research to public policies. She coordinates the University of Minnesota’s graduate certificate program in Early Childhood Policy studies and provides ongoing assistance to Minnesota’s Legislative Early Childhood Caucus. Ms. Cadigan also provides technical support and training to providers nationwide who use the Early Literacy Individual Growth and Development Indicators (IGDI’s) and the related Get it, Got it, Go! website.

Ms. Cadigan is currently finishing her doctorate in educational psychology at the University of Minnesota with a thesis examining the relations between preschoolers’ phonemic awareness skills and vocabulary development. Ms. Cadigan has an Educational Specialist degree from James Madison University and a Master’s degree from the University of Washington. She is a 2002 Bush Leadership Fellow and 2006 recipient of the President’s Student Leadership and Service award and the Mary A. McEvoy Award for Public Engagement and Leadership. Karen is a graduate of Minnesota’s Head Start program.

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Phone: 612-626-8356
cand0013@umn.edu

Co-Director, Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Program (IECMH)
Director, Harris Programs
Research Associate/Instructor, Institute of Child Development

208A Child Development
51 East River Road
Minneapolis, MN 55455

Phone: 612-626-8668
Email: carls032@umn.edu

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Phone: 612-625-0874
glea0043@umn.edu

Vicki Hawley served as the Minnesota Early Literacy Training Project (MELT2) coordinator. She received her M.S. in Child Development/Family Science from North Dakota State University. She has a varied child and family teaching background that includes junior high reading, ECFE, and Parents as Teachers. Vicki's more recent work has been as project coordinator in statewide child care training and parent education programs in North Dakota, the literacy home visiting component of the Words Work! initiative in St. Paul, and a statewide Head Start/AmeriCorps early literacy initiative in Minnesota. Vicki has great curiosity about the process of learning and change in adults, particularly those who work with young children. This makes her work both a vocation and an avocation.

Vicki and her husband Dale have three grown children, all of whom have singer-songwriter inclinations that keep the family in tune.

Recent Presentations

Caring for Infants and Toddlers in Groups: Conversations about Curriculum, V. Hawley, Strong Foundations Birth to Three Conference, February 2008, Duluth, MN.

• Slide presentation, 30 pages (full screen, color, pdf)
• Slide presentation, 6 slides per page (black and white, pdf, 5 pages)
• Handout: Strategies to Help Children Self-Regulate (pdf, 1 page)
• Handout: Curriculum Definitions (pdf, 1 page)
• Handout: Resources Used (pdf, 2 pages)

Moving Teachers Along the Road: Two Projects Coach Teachers in Child Care and Head Start, V. Hawley and C. Watson, National Association for the Education of Young Children Professional Development Institute, June 2006, San Antonia, TX.

• Presentation handout (pdf file, 10 pages)
• A-E-I-O-U: Vowels of Early Literacy (pdf file)
• Using Data (pdf file)

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Her current training, research, and teaching interests center around addressing challenging behavior in early childhood and early childhood social-emotional development. Ms. Hjelseth teaches two online courses for CEED, Bridging Education and Mental Health, which she has taught since January of 2005; and Addressing the Needs of Young Children with Challenging Behavior, which she has taught since summer of 2006. Leah received her M.A. in Educational Psychology from the University of Minnesota in 2002.  She is currently pursuing a doctorate in Educational Psychology with a thesis examining the effects of intensive coaching on teacher behavior aimed at decreasing challenging behavior in children and facilitating social-emotional development. 

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Phone: 612-625-3058
jamijd@gmail.com  

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Phone: 612-624-6365
Email: smcconne@umn.edu

Scott McConnell is CEED's director of community engagement and devotes time to the University's Northside Initiative. Scott continues his research, training, and outreach in language and literacy development and early childhood education. He leads CEED's presence on Minneapolis's north side, where he focuses on early childhood community-based research, outreach, and advocacy.

Scott is Professor of Educational Psychology in the Special Education Program; in addition, he is an Adjunct Professor of Child Psychology and Director of Graduate Studies for the Early Childhood Policy Certificate program at the University of Minnesota.

Scott is also the 2008-09 Fesler-Lampert Chair in Urban and Regional Affairs. Scott received the chair because of the work he has done throughout his career in early childhood education and development and his proposed project to extend this work to children living on Minneapolis's north side and to integrate the educational issues with health care concerns, as part of the project Five Hundred Under Five.

Scott also leads Minnesota's efforts in a collaboration between the University of Kansas, The Ohio State University, and Dynamic Measurement Group. The mission of the Center on Response to Intervention in Early Childhood (CRTIEC) is to reduce the number of children with reading problems by increasing the number of children entering school with knowledge and skill in early literacy and language.

Dr. McConnell received his Ph.D. in Educational Psychology at the University of Oregon in 1982. He served as the Co-Director of the Early Childhood Research Institute on Measuring Growth and Development, a five-year research, development, and dissemination effort to build procedures for describing young children's growth and development over time, and to design interventions that support optimal rates of development. He has published articles on the assessment and treatment of social behavior deficits, social competence, school adjustment, and academic performance, including development of early literacy skills and other developmental competencies. Scott is also the proud parent of Nora and Reid.

Recent Publications and Presentation Handouts

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schm0877@umn.edu  

Phone: 612-626-4375 (Wulling Hall)
seder035@umn.edu

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Phone: 612-625=8960
venn0021@umn.edu
 

Phone: 612-625-3058
stark276@umn.edu  

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Co-Director, CEED
Director of Applied Research and Training

40 Education Sciences Building
56 East River Road
Minneapolis, MN 55455

Phone: 612-624-3367
Email: asusman@umn.edu

Christopher Watson, Ph.D.

Co-Director, CEED
Director of Professional Development
Co-Director, Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Certificate Program

Phone: 612-625-2898
Fax: 612-625-2093
Email: watso012@umn.edu

Dr. Watson is a certified Infant Toddler Training Intensive (ITTI) trainer and has co-written two early childhood training-of-trainer curricula, Talking Reasonably and Responsibly About Brain Development and Violence Prevention and Intervention in Early Childhood. In addition, he has developed training courses for early childhood professionals, including Relationship-Based Teaching with Young Children and Bridging Education and Mental Health (BEAM). Dr. Watson has participated in numerous community-based professional development activities, including both content-specific and systems work. Currently Dr. Watson is working on Bridging Education and Mental Health (BEAM), a multi-year research and training project focused on early childhood social-emotional development, mental health and challenging behaviors, funded by the Minnesota Department of Education. He is co-director, along with Elizabeth A. Carlson and Martha Farrell Erickson, of the new interdisciplinary Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Program, which began its first cohort fall semester 2007.

Vita and Presentation Handouts

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Distinguished Colleagues

Richard Weinberg, Ph.D.

Former CEED Director
Distinguished University Teaching Professor of Child Psychology

Institute of Child Development
180 Child Development
51 E. River Road
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455-0345

Telephone: 612-624-3575
Fax: 612-624-6373
weinb002@umn.edu
 

Formerly co-director of the Harris Center and long-time University faculty member and administrator, Dr. Weinberg served as director of CEED. Rich has a long history with CEED, a clear and strong vision, and a commitment to "giving away child development knowledge."

Recent publications

Invited Review of "The Infant and the Family in the Twenty‑First century." (2004). Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 43:1, 115‑116.

A Body Coming Through the Rye. (2004). American Psychological Society Observer 17(4), 35.

Children and Sports/Athletics (2005). In Fisher, C. B. & Lemer, R. M. (Eds.), Applied Developmental Science An Encyclopedia of Research Policies and Programs Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1048‑1051 (with J. Ostrov).

Peers (2005). In Fisher, C. B. & Lerner, R. M. (Eds.), Applied Developmental Science An Encyclopedia of Research Policies and Programs  Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 816‑819 (with J. Ostrov).

Intelligence Testing (2005). In Fisher, C. B. & Lemer, R. M. (Eds.), Applied Developmental Science An Encyclopedia of Research Policies and Programs Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 599‑601 (with A. Luckner).

The Minnesota Transracial Adoption Study: Parent reports of psychosocial adjustment at late adolescence (2004, approved 2005). Adoption Quarterly, 8(2), 27-44. (with I. Waldman,  M. van Dulmen and J. Scarr).

Recent honors and awards

• University of Minnesota School Psychology Training Program Distinguished Alumnus Award, 2005.
• Biography (2005). In Fisher, C. B. & Lerner, R. M. (Eds.), Applied Developmental Science: An Encyclopedia of Research, Policies, and Programs, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1134-1137.
• President’s Award for Outstanding Service to the University of Minnesota, 2004.
• Gifted Child Quarterly, Article of the Year, 2002.
• University Distinguished Teaching Professor and member of Academy of Distinguished Teachers, 1999-.
• Emma M. Birkmaier Professor of Educational Leadership, 1994-97.

See individual department web page

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Byron Egeland
Irving B. Harris Professor
Institute of Child Development
Room 230
51 East River Road
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Phone: 612-624-5273
egela001@umn.edu

Visit Dr. Egeland's ICD web page

Martha Farrell Erickson, Ph.D.

(Retired June 2008) 

Senior Fellow
Director, Harris Programs
Co-Chair, President's Initiative on Children, Youth, & Families, University of Minnesota

Email: mferick@umn.edu

Having served as the founding Director of the University of Minnesota's Children, Youth, & Family Consortium (1991 to 2003), Marti Erickson directed the Harris Programs for CEED until June 2008 and co-chaired the President's Initiative on Children, Youth and Families. A developmental psychologist and professor in both Child Psychology and Family Social Science, Marti specializes in linking research, practice, and policy in the areas of parent-child attachment, child abuse prevention, and children's mental health. With Byron Egeland, Marti developed the STEEP™ program, a preventive intervention program for parents and infants, and the Seeing Is Believing® video strategy for working with parents and infants, and she oversees training for both of those programs.

Marti's publications include many scholarly articles and books as well as a syndicated parenting column Growing Concerns. Since 1995, Marti also has appeared regularly as the child and family expert on KARE-TV's (NBC) Today Show and Sunrise Show and, with her daughter, hosts a weekly radio show, Good Enough Moms, which airs every Sunday 2:00pm to 4:00pm on FM 107. Marti has been honored by numerous state and national organizations, including the Minnesota Psychological Association (Outstanding Contribution to Psychology Award, 2003) and the Minnesota School Psychologists Association (Distinguished Best Practices Award, 2003).

Marti served as visionary and co-director, with Christopher Watson, of the new interdisciplinary Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Certificate Program.

Read an article that appeared in USA Today November 2007 about the Children & Nature Network (Building a Movement to Reconnect Children & Nature) that includes Q&A from Dr. Erickson.

Article: Children and Nature: A Natural Attachment (pdf file)

Presentation: The Three Cs: Critical Ingredients for Healthy Child and Youth Development (pdf file)

• Strategies for Parents of Children Ages Birth to 4 (pdf file)
• Strategies for Parents of Children Ages 5 to 11 (pdf file)
• Strategies for Parents of Children Ages 12 to 18 (pdf file)

Good Enough Moms and Dads:

Listen to Marti and her daughter, Erin Erickson Garner, on "Good Enough Moms" every Sunday, 2-4pm, on FM107 in the Twin Cities or via webcast.

• Separating Fact from Fiction about Parent-Child Attachment (pdf file)

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CEED Field Faculty

CEED Fellows

CEED Advisory Board

Mary McEvoy Memorial Page  

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