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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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, Kamora Coleman talks about her time as a McKinney Scholar.