Webinar | Innovations in Family Learning

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This session will highlight the work of three organizations that received grants through NCFL’s Sharon Darling Innovation Fund in 2023. Each organization has explored innovations in family learning including:

• A curriculum that supports a multigenerational approach to science learning
• Peer support strategies for families transitioning from pre-K to kindergarten
• A program that empowers parents to embrace a playful approach to parenting

During the webinar, grantees will share how they innovated to address challenges in their communities along with key takeaways, lessons learned, and accomplishments over the past year. This will be an excellent opportunity to explore how these innovations can inform and inspire practices in your own work.

Speakers:

Xiangyou Shen is Assistant Professor affiliated with the Hallie E. Ford Center for Healthy Children & Families and Director of the Health, Environment, and Leisure Research Lab in the Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society, Oregon State University. She has over a decade of experience studying the assessment, activation, and health implications of adult play and playfulness. She is the creator of the Adult Play and Playfulness Assessment Battery, including the well-received Adult Playfulness Trait Scale that has been translated into multiple languages and widely used by researchers and practitioners in education, psychological interventions, and health programs. Her research has explored the relationship between parental playfulness and children’s adaptive behavior, and family playful engagement in leisure activities under stress. Her most recent work include (a) interdisciplinary collaborations with climate scientists, Extension service, and tribal partners to integrate playful learning in creative nature-based youth climate change education, and (b) innovative parental playfulness intervention to improve parent-child relationship, parent wellbeing, and child social-emotional outcomes through playful parenting.

As Executive Director of La Fuerza de Familias Latinas by Literacy Partners, Michelle advances media for social impact and leverages partnerships to expand the work of Literacy Partners nationally by bringing the La Fuerza de Creer initiative into communities. She is an Art Therapist with a Masters degree from Hofstra University and a B.A. in Communication Arts with a focus on film and broadcast from Fordham University. Michelle is also an alumni of the International Exchange Program of the U.S. Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. She joins Literacy Partners from the museum field, where she served as Director of Education & Community Programs at the Children’s Museum of the Arts in SoHo and Manager of ArtAccess Programs & Autism Initiatives at Queens Museum. A leader in the City’s community of early childhood stakeholders, she has expertise and passion for working with families across cultures to make artistic and educational resources accessible. She believes stories are the artifacts of the soul, and looks forward to working with colleagues on promoting the power of storytelling.

Before becoming Chief Executive Officer, Erin Fisher previously served as the Chief of Staff at Bright Beginnings. In this role, Ms. Fisher was responsible for serving as the strategic advisor to the Executive Director, assuming day-to-day responsibility for projects and tasks, and creating and maintaining cross-departmental relationships to enable leadership success. Ms. Fisher helped to lead the strategic re-opening of BBI during the COVID-19 pandemic in June of 2020, has successfully led BBI’s process of re-application for the continuation grants with Head Start, and has coordinated the Pre-K and Early Head Start programming with the Office of the State Superintendent of Education. In the Chief of Staff role, Ms. Fisher also oversaw the departments of Operations, Human Resources, Data and Continuous Improvement, Partnerships, and Compliance.

Prior to Bright Beginnings, Ms. Fisher served children in Washington, DC and Prince George’s County for over 15 years. She is formerly a teacher, instructional coach, and middle and high school principal. Before becoming a principal, Ms. Fisher was selected as a Ryan Fellow, a program to train highly effective principals. Most recently, the high school Ms. Fisher led was recognized as a Tier 1 School in SY 18-19 by the DC Public Charter School Board; Ms. Fisher and her team moved the school to this rating in just two years. Ms. Fisher has earned a Masters of Education from Harvard University and a Bachelors of Arts from University of Maryland, College Park.

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