The Nebraska Academy for Early Childhood Research at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has selected six faculty members, including the Munroe-Meyer Institute’s Amy Encinger, PhD, to serve as policy fellows for the 2022-23 academic year.
The fellows program is designed to educate early childhood researchers on policy processes, impacts and relationships to research; to provide policymakers with insight into the latest early childhood research at the University of Nebraska; and to generate collaboration among researchers and policymakers to develop effective research agendas that enrich early childhood experiences.
The program features a series of informal conversations between NAECR early childhood researchers and First Five Nebraska.
Katie Bass, data and policy research advisor for First Five Nebraska, said the fellows program is key to bridging the gap between the research and policy communities in the state.
“First Five Nebraska is privileged to have a front-row seat, using leading-edge research to help our state’s policymakers make the most informed decisions possible about the care, education and healthy development of young children,” she said.
Bass noted that continuing and strengthening the partnership between First Five Nebraska and NAECR Policy Fellows is crucial for future generations of children and their families.
“When we combine this mutually beneficial learning process with the work of building strategic relationships, it widens future opportunities for evaluative and applied policy research,” Bass said.
Dr. Encinger is an assistant professor of education and child development at the UNMC Munroe-Meyer Institute.
Dr. Encinger said: “I am looking forward to learning more about how to best work and communicate with policymakers to help inform policy decisions that impact young children and their families, as well as the opportunity to communicate the importance of early childhood. Early childhood research is important as it provides important insight on how to boost and support children’s development, provide early educators with strategies to provide optimal learning environments, and ultimately benefit children and their families. Taking and translating early childhood research into information that is meaningful for policymakers will allow for data informed policy and decision-making.”
The other policy fellows are:
— Carrie Clark, PhD, associate professor of educational psychology, UNL
— Holly Hatton-Bowers, PhD, associate professor of child, youth and family studies and early childhood Nebraska Extension specialist, UNL
— Sara Kupzyk, PhD, assistant professor of psychology, University of Nebraska at Omaha
— Dawn Mollenkopf, PhD, associate professor of teacher education, University of Nebraska at Kearney
— Amy Napoli, assistant professor of child, youth and family studies and early childhood Nebraska Extension specialist, UNL