News Archive
December 3, 2025
Book Babies, an early-literacy home visiting program, was developed to strengthen literacy promoting practices of families’ and children’s early literacy skills. To determine the efficacy of this program and whether its impacts vary by families’ language status, a team of scholars from the UNC Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute and the HighScope Educational Research Foundation evaluated the program.
December 1, 2025
The UNC Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute (FPG) is pleased to announce the 2025 awardee of the Joanne Erwich Roberts Early Career Award. Congratulations to Kylie Garber, a research scientist who works with pre-K evaluation projects in North Carolina and Georgia
November 19, 2025
Noreen Yazejian has been named associate director for research at the UNC Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute. Continuing in this role, which she previously held as interim, Yazejian supports research across the institute. She brings more than 30 years of experience and expertise to this role.
November 17, 2025
Lindsay Gomes, a research scientist at the UNC Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, focuses her work on understanding the contextual factors that shape young children's social-emotional development within early care and education settings. As part of our FPG profile series, we recently spoke with her to learn more about her work at FPG. Find out what she had to say.
November 13, 2025
As part of our FPG Faculty Fellow profile series, we recently spoke with Dr. John Gilmore, the Thad and Alice Eure Distinguished Professor and vice chair for Research and Scientific Affairs in the Department of Psychiatry at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Medicine. Find out about his professional journey, what keeps him motivated, and what being a faculty fellow at FPG means to him.
November 11, 2025
We spoke with some presenters and attendees at this year's International Early Childhood Inclusion Institute and will be sharing those conversations with you in a short series of articles over the coming weeks. In this article, you’ll hear from Sandy Flacke, the Maine Department of Education’s deputy director of the Office of Special Services and Inclusive Education and early childhood special education coordinator.
November 3, 2025
Gisele Crawford is a research specialist at FPG who has worked on numerous studies of young children and their environments and experiences, including large-scale studies of public pre-kindergarten in the United States.As part of our FPG profile series, we recently spoke with Crawford to learn more about her work at FPG.
October 27, 2025
The International Early Childhood Inclusion Institute celebrated its 25th anniversary in May and we are already planning for 2026. Co-chairs Chih-Ing Lim and Sherri Britt Williams share insights about the event. And be sure to save the date for the 2026 event, which will take place in Chapel Hill and online May 19 through May 21, 2026.
October 19, 2025
The UNC Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute is pleased to recognize both Applications Analyst Tom Leggett and Special Programs Manager Erica Nouri for their outstanding service to the Institute as this year's James J. Gallagher Award winners. Congratulations, Tom and Erica!
October 15, 2025
We spoke with some presenters and attendees at this year's International Early Childhood Inclusion Institute and will be sharing those conversations with you in a short series of articles over the coming weeks. In this article, you’ll hear from Gregory Facey, a father of two children with hearing loss, and member of the Black Fathers Crew.
October 9, 2025
In this four-part series, you will hear directly from the 2025 cohort of McKinney Scholars about what they learned and what they will be taking with them from this experience. In this installment, Amaya Jeffers talks about her time as a McKinney Scholar.
October 6, 2025
A clinical psychologist by training, Will Aldridge likens his field of implementation science, which translates research into practice and policy, to engineering. In this article, Aldridge—a senior implementation specialist at FPG and a founding member of the leadership team for The Impact Center at FPG—talks about his career in implementation science.
September 30, 2025
The research and translation of empirical findings of FPG Faculty Fellow Dorothy Espelage, PhD—a leading expert on addressing teenage domestic violence, bullying, and student well-being—have resulted in a plethora of interventions, policies and laws protecting young people and making schools safer. Learn more about her work.
September 25, 2025
In this four-part series, you will hear directly from the 2025 cohort of McKinney Scholars about what they learned and what they will be taking with them from this experience. In this installment, Aerryan Bentley talks about her time as a McKinney Scholar.
September 23, 2025
We spoke with some presenters and attendees at this year's International Early Childhood Inclusion Institute and will be sharing those conversations with you in a short series of articles over the coming weeks. In this article, you’ll hear from Jenna Weglarz-Ward, associate professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
September 17, 2025
In this four-part series, you will hear directly from the 2025 cohort of McKinney Scholars about what they learned and what they will be taking with them from this experience. In this installment, Kyleigh Creighton talks about her time as a McKinney Scholar.
September 11, 2025
In 2023, FPG Director Brian Boyd and Senior Research Scientist Sam Odom were appointed to a 15-person committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine that would conduct an independent analysis of the Department of Defense’s Comprehensive Autism Care Demonstration. The report from that analysis is now available.
September 9, 2025
Adam Holland is a technical assistance specialist at FPG. His research interests include motivation in early childhood, promoting cognitive development in young children, equity, and understanding the effects of classroom processes on children's social and emotional competence. As part of our profile series, we recently spoke with him to learn more about his work.
September 4, 2025
We spoke with some presenters and attendees at this year's International Early Childhood Inclusion Institute and will be sharing those conversations with you in a short series of articles over the coming weeks. In this article, you’ll hear from Sam Atencio, senior program specialist at the Los Angeles County Office of Education.
September 2, 2025
Heather Wasser is an assistant professor of nutrition at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. As part of our FPG Faculty Fellow profile series, we recently spoke with Wasser to learn about her professional journey, what keeps her motivated, what she’s working on now, and what being a faculty fellow at FPG means to her.
