AC21 - A2 - Early Learning Neighborhood Collaborative: Building and Sustaining a Birth-5 Early Learning System

Dr. Kimberly Diamond-Berry is Director of Research, Policy, and Practice at the HighScope Educational Research Foundation. She joined HighScope in August 2017 and her role has been to strengthen the research-policy-practice link in the organization, locally, and across the state of Michigan. Dr. Diamond-Berry supports dissemination and communication efforts concerning new findings and evidence about approaches, curricula, and interventions that work best for young children and those who care for, support, and teach them in educational settings. She also partners with local and statewide early childhood stakeholders to raise awareness of some of the challenges facing families with very young children. Before joining HighScope, Dr. Diamond-Berry worked for the Quality Improvement Center for Research-Based Infant-Toddler Court Teams (QIC-CT) and the Early Head Start National Resource Center (EHSNRC), both at ZERO TO THREE. She has spent more than 30 years advocating, in various capacities, for the healthy development of children of all ages and their families through multicultural counseling, community psychology, private practice, and in educational settings. She has lectured and been an adjunct professor of counseling and psychology at Loyola University Chicago, Northern Virginia Community College, and Bowie State University. She currently co-teaches the Infant Mental Health Seminar course in the Merrill Palmer Skillman Institute at Wayne State University. A licensed clinical psychologist and an endorsed Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Mentor in policy, Dr. Diamond-Berry received her doctorate in counseling psychology from Loyola University Chicago.

Dr. Nkechy Ezeh is an award-winning, international scholar who is passionate about helping vulnerable children and parents who are often left out in the educational system. Her life embodies education, and she believes in using early childhood education and authentic parent engagement to ensure that our community's children have access to quality, early learning opportunities. Dr. Ezeh is an associate professor at Aquinas College and the founder and pedagogical leader of the landmark Early Learning Neighborhood Collaborative (ELNC) - a trusted, place-based, early learning collaborative that provides funding, innovative shared support services, and advocacy to partner organizations rooted in vulnerable communities. Through its successful dual-generational model, ELNC and its partners provide family support and high-quality, culturally competent, early childhood educational services to at-risk families. Her life purpose is to ensure that teachers are able to educate ALL children and that vulnerable children are ready for kindergarten. Dr. Ezeh's work has taken her across the globe to train teachers and to the state government to testify and advocate for vulnerable children. She recently published her memoir - Nwaenyi: Child of an Elephant; Lessons Learned from My Father, a Nigerian Chief, about Child Development and Affirmations.