Keynote Speakers

Anne W. Mitchell

Saturday Keynote Speaker

Anne W. Mitchell is the President of Early Childhood Policy Research, an independent consulting firm specializing in evaluation research, policy analysis and planning on child care/early education issues for government, foundations and national nonprofit organizations. She is the National Child Care Information Center's State Technical Assistance Specialist in Region I (working with the states of Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island). With Louise Stoney, she co-founded the Alliance for Early Childhood Finance, a learning community on finance reform and system-building for early care and education. Previously she was Associate Dean of the Research Division at Bank Street College of Education in New York City. Anne has conducted national studies of state and local prekindergarten policy and early care and education finance; and has written widely on child care and early education policy and practice. Her publications include Early Childhood Programs and the Public Schools: Between Promise and Practice (1989); A Proposal for Licensing Individuals Who Practice Early Care and Education (1995); the 1997 and 2001 editions of Financing Child Care In The United States; Education for all Young Children: The Role of States and the Federal Government in Promoting Prekindergarten and Kindergarten (2001); The State with Two Prekindergarten Programs: A Look at Prekindergarten Education in New York State 1928-2003 (2004); The Price of School Readiness: A Tool for Estimating the Cost of Universal Preschool in the States (2004) and Success Stories: State Investment in Early Care and Education in Illinois, North Carolina and Rhode Island (2005).

She began her early childhood career as the teacher-director of a child care center in a low-income housing development in Cambridge, MA. She received her B.S. degree (1972) in astronomy from Wellesley College, her M.S. degree (1988) in early childhood education leadership from Bank Street College of Education and an honorary Certificate in Early Childhood Leadership Development (1995) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Anne is serving her fourth term as an elected member of the Greenville (NY) Board of Education, served five years on the State Professional Standards and Practices Board for Teaching appointed by the New York State Board of Regents. In 2003, Anne received one of the first Champions for Children awards from the New York State Association for the Education of Young Children. She is the Past President of the National Association for the Education of Young Children.