CHSE Faculty

The LSU Writing Project held its first place-based Invitational Summer Institute on Mallard Island in the Rainy Lake Watershed, north of International Falls, Minnesota. Margaret-Mary Sulentic Dowell, PhD, director of the LSU Writing Project, received a grant from the Ernest Oberholtzer Foundation to host the week-long writing institute.

Cynthia DiCarlo, PhD was awarded the 2024 National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators (NAECTE) Foundation Established Career Early Teacher Educator Research Grant Award Winner. Dr. DiCarlo was selected as the top-scoring application after the review by a team of NAECTE peer reviewers for her project "Child Sustained Attention in One-Year-Olds." This project is part of a research series that has focused on identifying which teaching conditions (child choice, adult choice, or adult presentation) that elicit increased levels of engagement based on child age. Previous research on four-year-olds, three-year-olds, and two-year-olds has noted distinct differences in child attention based on teaching conditions. The goal of this project is to help provide direction to practitioners on the best teaching conditions to use with children at different ages to increase children's attention and engagement with materials. DiCarlo will be recognized at the National NAECTE conference on November 6 in Anaheim, California.

Early Childhood Education Institute (ECEI) Researchers, Michelle Brunson, PhD and Cynthia DiCarlo, PhD, along with their colleagues Ashely Boudreaux, Debra Jo Hailey, and Katrina Jordan, recently shared strategies for involving families in early childhood education in their article, "Engaging Parents as Partners Using Traditional and Distance Learning Models" in the practitioner publication ChildCare Exchange.

To secure funding to build the early care and education pipeline, the LSU Early Childhood Education Institute (ECEI) and the Louisiana Board of Regents collaborated on a submission to the Louisiana Workforce Commission to develop a path for those interested in pursuing a career in early care and education - the Registered Apprenticeship for Early Care and Education Teachers. This initiative will provide funding to those interested in working in the field but who are not yet working in an early care and education program. This funding will parallel the funding available to those currently working in Type 3 childcare centers through the Louisiana Department of Education's LA Pathways scholarship fund.

The LSU College of Human Sciences & Education announces Elwood F. "Ed" Holton, III, EdD, as director of the LSU School of Leadership & Human Resource Development beginning June 1. Holton will continue to also serve in his role as Senior Director of the LSU Leadership Development Institute and Special Assistant to the Dean for Leadership Initiatives.

The LSU College of Human Sciences & Education announces John Nauright, PhD, as director of the LSU School of Kinesiology and will also serve as the Karen Wax Schmitt and Family Endowed Professor. Nauright will assume his role on June 1.

LSU Kinesiology Professor Senlin Chen, PhD, and his team are developing a novel obesity prevention program to use in Louisiana schools, combining such tactics as virtual pets and coaches with the best science to encourage healthy behaviors.