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Left to
right: The Hon. Robert
G. Clark, chairman of
the Mississippi Delta
Revitalization Task
Force, (left) talked
with Dr. Alfio Rausa,
medical director for the
Delta region for the
Mississippi Board of
Health, and Dr. Myrtis
Tabb of Delta State
University at the Rural
Early Childhood Forum on
Young Children in the
Mississippi Delta on May
30, 2007. (ECI) Click on
photo for larger image.
Cathy
Grace, Ed.D., director
of the National Center
for Rural Early
Childhood Learning
Initiatives and the
Mississippi State
University Early
Childhood Institute,
(left) shared a laugh
with Dean Augusta Clark
of Mississippi Valley
State University at the
Rural Early Childhood
Forum on Young Children
in the Mississippi Delta
on May 30, 2007. (ECI)
Click on photo for
larger image.
Pat Levitt, Ph.D., of
Vanderbilt University
(left) talked with Tom
Pittman of the Community
Foundation of Northwest
Mississippi and state
Rep. John Mayo (District
25) at the Rural Early
Childhood Forum on Young
Children in the
Mississippi Delta on May
30, 2007. (ECI) Click on
photo for larger image.
Richard
N. Brandon, Ph.D., of
the University of
Washington and Oleta
Garrett Fitzgerald of
the Children’s Defense
Fund spoke at the Rural
Early Childhood Forum on
Young Children in the
Mississippi Delta on May
30, 2007. (ECI) Click on
photo for larger image.
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ECI’s National Center for Rural Early
Childhood Learning Initiatives Co-Sponsors Forum on Delta
Children
JUNE 1, 2007|
The National Center for
Rural Early Childhood Learning Initiatives co-sponsored
a forum May 30 for leaders in the Mississippi Delta to consider
the region’s early childhood services.
The center, known as Rural Early Childhood, is part of the
Mississippi State University
Early Childhood
Institute. The
Mississippi Delta Revitalization Task Force, established
by the Mississippi legislature in 2006, commissioned the center
and Mississippi Valley State University to co-sponsor the May 30
Rural Early Childhood Forum on Young Children in the Mississippi
Delta. The forum took place on the campus of
Mississippi Valley State
University.
The Hon.
Robert G. Clark is chairman of the task force, which will
deliver recommendations to the Mississippi legislature in
September.
Cathy Grace, Ed.D., director of ECI and Rural Early Childhood,
chaired the forum, which included presentations by experts on
early childhood brain development and financing of early
childhood services. (See the forum
agenda.)
In preparation for the forum, the
Early Childhood Atlas
prepared an analysis of access to early childhood services in
the region. (See the
analysis.) The Atlas is a joint
project of ECI and the Community Information Resource Center in
the Rural Policy Research Institute at the University of
Missouri.
Oleta Garrett Fitzgerald opened the forum with observations on
the status of young children in the Delta. Fitzgerald is
regional director of the Southern Rural Black Women’s Initiative
for Economic and Social Justice, a program of the Children’s
Defense Fund.
Pat Levitt, Ph.D., of Vanderbilt University spoke on early
childhood brain development. (See his
slide presentation.) Levitt is director of the
Vanderbilt Kennedy
Center for Research on Human Development.
Richard N. Brandon, Ph.D., offered an economic perspective on
state early childhood services in “Investing in Early Learning
in Mississippi,” the luncheon address. Brandon directs the
Human Services Policy Center
at the University of Washington.
Providing “the Arkansas example” of statewide early childhood
services, Megan Coyle described the role of the
Division of Child
Care and Early Childhood Education in that state’s
Department of Health and Human Services and Carolyn Y. Marsh,
M.S., described Kids
First, an early intervention program of the University
of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
46 Blackjack Rd. / P.O. Box 6013 /
Mississippi State, MS / 39762
tel. 662-325-4836 / fax 662-325-5436
© 2004- Mississippi State University
Updated
06/01/2007
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