2005-2006

• Council member Charles A. Nelson, Ph.D. presented at numerous conferences in 2006, including:
  American Academy of Pediatrics, Atlanta, GA
  Romanian Psychological Association, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
  Finnish Psychological Association, Tampere, Finland
  Society for Behavioral and Developmental Pediatrics, Philadelphia, PA
  International Collaborations in Social and Behavioral Science Research (National Academy of Sciences), Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
  Visiting Professor Lecture Series, MIND Institute, University of California - Davis
  Mind Matters, Inc., Yountville, CA

• In December 2006, Council Member Megan Gunnar presented "The Science of Early Child Development" at a Ready4K breakfast with business leaders in Minneapolis, MN.

• In November, 2006, Council Member Megan Gunnar presented on the topic of "advances in neuroscience that improve our understanding of connections among environment, brain and behavior in early childhood" at a meeting of the Board of Children, Youth, and Families of the National Academy of Science in Washington, DC. Gunnar also presented "Brain Development Basics for Early Childhood Practitioners" that month as an invited presentation for the U. Connects Program in SW Minnesota.

• On November 11, 2006, Council Member Pat Levitt presented "Brain Development and Early Experiences: Long-Term Consequences" at the Learning and the Brain Conference in Boston, Mass. This national conference is designed to make brain research and classroom interventions understandable to nonscientists, educators, clinicians, and parents. Also presenting at the conference was Council Member Charles A. Nelson, whose talk focused on "Developing Brains: Early Experience, Brain Development & Neural Plasticity." Both Levitt and Nelson serve on the faculty of the conference.

• In October 2006, Council Member Bill Greenough was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Boston, MA.

• On October 20, 2006, Council Member Pat Levitt presented "Emergent Literacy and Brain Development” at Literacy 360º : Public Broadcasting Leads Families to Reading". The Fall Conference of Ready to Lead in Literacy (RTLL) is attended by public television station coordinators of this literacy initiative sponsored by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Levitt’s opening presentation explained how the connections between children’s social-emotional, cognitive and brain development serve as the basis for children’s literacy development.

• In September 2006, Council Member Megan Gunnar presented "Early Experience and Brain Development" for the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation in Minneapolis, MN.

• On September 26, 2006, Council Chair Jack P. Shonkoff and Council Members
  Megan Gunnar and Charles Nelson, and Council Contributing Member Arthur Rolnick were among the prestigious presenters at the Richmond Symposium: Child Health and Development in the 21st Century. Presented by the Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard Graduate School of Education, and Children’s Hospital, the symposium, honoring the 90th birthday, life, and work of Dr. Julius Richmond, also launched the newly established Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University.

• In June, 2006, Council Member Megan Gunnar presented "Early Deprivation and Child Development" at the Anne E. Casey Meeting on Congregate Care in Baltimore, MD.

• In May 2006, Council Member Ross Thompson presented on the topic of "what journalists need to know about 3, 4, and 5-year-olds and how they learn and grow" for The Pew Seminar on the Coverage of Early Childhood Education, sponsored by the Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media, at Teachers College, Columbia University, New York.

• On February 28, 2006, Council Member Pat Levitt presented "A Primer of Brain Development for Policy Makers" at a Joint Session, Education Subcommittees of the Tennessee Legislature in Nashville, TN.

• In February 2006, Council Member Ross Thompson presented "Developmental Science and Preschool Education" at National Perspectives on Universal Preschool: A Forum on Research and Policy, a conference held at the University of California, Berkeley.

• On January 19, 2006, Council Chair Jack P. Shonkoff visited the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention where he presented "Early Childhood Stress, Development and Health: Connecting the Dots and Closing the Gap Between What We Know and What We Do." The invitation came from the Division of Violence Prevention in the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control as part of their interest to connect the prevention of child maltreatment to a major public health agenda. In the afternoon, he co-presented with Council Executive Director Gillian Najarian to the CDC's national health marketing group on "How More Effective Translation of Neuroscience Can Promote More Productive Public Discussion About Early Childhood Policy and Practice."

• In September 2005, Council Member Ross Thompson presented "Human Capital: Investment in Early Childhood" as part of a symposium presented to the National Association for Business Economics in Chicago, IL. This was Thompson's second NABE conference presentation on this topic, co-presenting with Council Contributing Member James Heckman and others.