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, PhD, a research scientist at FPG, who works with pre-K evaluation projects in North Carolina and Georgia.

In a letter to the award selection committee, Sandra Soliday Hong, PhD, senior research scientist at FPG, offered her unreserved recommendation of Garber, noting Garber's dedication to rigorous translational research and her effective communication with both educators and policymakers, and describing these qualities as making Garber an outstanding candidate. Additionally, Soliday Hong emphasized Garber's strong leadership abilities, valuable experience in teaching and mentoring, and significant contributions to high-impact publications.

The Joanne Erwich Roberts Early Career Award, which was created to support early career researchers, honors Joanne Erwich Roberts, PhD, a distinguished researcher and professor with a long and dynamic career at UNC-Chapel Hill and FPG until her untimely death in 2008. With faculty appointments in the Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences and the Department of Pediatrics at the UNC School of Medicine, and active involvement in the Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities, Roberts worked across disciplines and cared deeply about supporting researchers in their career development.

In 2009, the Joanne Erwich Roberts Memorial Fund was established by her loved ones to sponsor the annual early career award, which is intended to support recipients in their professional development. Funds may be applied toward travel for meetings or conferences, registration for workshops or short courses to strengthen statistical or technical skills, membership fees for professional organizations, or other career-enhancing activities.

"I am honored to receive an award that exemplifies the mission and collaborative spirit of FPG and Joanne Erwich Roberts," said Garber. "I am excited to use the funds to travel to the AERA conference in Los Angeles this Spring to present my Abecedarian Project work."

Garber's research has focused on early childhood development within early care and education (ECE) environments, with particular emphasis on identifying effective policies and practices that support children's school readiness. Central to this work is understanding why the benefits of early childhood programs often diminish over time—a phenomenon known as pre-K “fadeout.” Garber's work has explored multiple hypotheses for this phenomenon, including the role of early academic skills, the role of instructional quality and teacher-child interactions, and the alignment between pre-K and early elementary school experiences. 

Garber plans to use the award funds to attend the American Educational Research Association (AERA) conference, where she will present her research on executive function development in ECE settings.

Upon being notified of the award, Garber said, "I am honored to receive an award that exemplifies the mission and collaborative spirit of FPG and Joanne Erwich Roberts. I am excited to use the funds to travel to the AERA conference in Los Angeles this Spring to present my Abecedarian Project work."

Previous Award Winners

Read about previous award winners:
2023 |  McFayden receives Joanne Erwich Roberts Early Career Award
2022 |  Hsiu-Wen Yang receives Joanne Erwich Roberts Early Career Award
2020 |  With the Joanne Erwich Roberts Early Career Award, Nowell will study new approaches in feeding and autism