Event Overview

Agenda

Co-Sponsors & Planning Committee <

2007 Summit

Dr. Ross Thompson

Dr. Helen Egger

Molly Munger

Professor, Psychology, UC Davis
As a developmental psychologist, Ross Thompson studies early parent-child relationships, the development of emotional understanding and emotion regulation, conscience development, and the growth of self-understanding in young children. He also works on the applications of developmental research to public policy concerns, including school readiness and its development, early childhood investments, and early mental health.
Thompson is a founding member of the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, and was a member of the Committee on Integrating the Science of Early Childhood Development of the National Academy of Sciences that produced the report, From Neurons to Neighborhoods (National Academy Press, 2000). He is a member of the Board of Directors of Zero to Three, the Scientific Advisory Board of the National Institute for Early Education Research, and is on the Editorial Advisory Board of Wondertime magazine. He received the Ann Brown Award for Excellence in Developmental Research in 2007.

A child psychiatrist, epidemiologist, and psychiatric researcher, Dr. Egger focuses on psychiatric disorders, particularly anxiety disorders in preschool children ages 2 through 5 years of age. She has been a leader in the development of measures for assessing psychiatric symptoms and disorders in young children. Dr. Egger is lead author of the Preschool Age Psychiatric Assessment (PAPA), the first comprehensive structured parent interview for assessing psychiatric symptoms and disorders in preschool children.

Dr. Egger was recently awarded a large neuroimaging grant from NIMH to focus on the neural dysfunction underlying early onset anxiety disorders. She is currently co-conducting a number of NIMH-funded studies including a large, community study of preschool anxiety disorders, a longitudinal study of children diagnosed with psychiatric disorders as preschoolers, and an fMRI/eye tracking study of children diagnosed with anxiety disorders as preschoolers. Dr. Egger is a collaborator on the Bucharest Early Intervention Project, a longitudinal study of the effects of early deprivation with children in Romanian orphanages. Dr. Egger is also clinical director of the Duke Preschool Psychiatric Clinic and conducts comprehensive evaluations and provides treatment for children and their families.

Co-Director, The Advancement Project
A federal prosecutor and business litigator turned civil rights attorney, Molly Munger has been deeply involved in efforts to expand and improve early childhood education for several years. Her research and advocacy about highest need communities was critical to the development of thousands of preschool spaces serving low income children in Los Angeles County, and her report on statewide preschool space shortfalls, California's Preschool Challenge, spurred the creation of the Speaker's Task Force on School Facilities.
Molly and her colleagues at Advancement Project currently are focusing on building a consensus early childhood enrichment agenda among 0-3, child care, preschool and K-12 advocates, and on securing school bond funding for preschool and K-12 facilities. A State Commissioner for First 5 California, Molly serves on the Boards of Directors of Children Now, the James Irvine Foundation, Alliance for College-Ready Public Schools, and the Westridge School for Girls. Molly received the Women Lawyers of Los Angeles Ernestine Stahlhut Award in 1996 and, with Co-Director Steve English, the ACLU of Southern California's Equal Justice Advocacy Award in 2002.

Founder and Trustee, The Atlas Family Foundation
A retired general partner of Goldman Sachs, Rich Atlas personally champions early childhood investment in Los Angeles as a philanthropic strategy with long-term impact and high social and economic returns. Rich Atlas is Secretary/Treasurer of the Board of Directors of ZERO TO THREE, the Co-Founder of The Atlas Family Foundation, and the Founder of Baby Futures. The Atlas Family Foundation works in partnership with its grantees to help lay solid foundations on which to build social, emotional and cognitive development that can enhance learning in school and throughout life. A philanthropist dedicated to supporting parents and early childhood professionals to facilitate the healthy development of the first years of life, Rich Atlas has a particular interest in increasing the sensitivity of business leaders to the impact of company attitudes and policies on family priorities.

District Chief, Children, Youth, and Family Services Bureau, LA County
Department of Mental Health
Chair, Los Angeles Public/Private Funders Partnership for Infants and Toddlers Sam Chan is a clinical psychologist and countywide District Chief with the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health in the Children, Youth, and Family Services Bureau. Recognized for his expertise in diversity issues, Dr. Chan has focused much of his career on early intervention with infants and young children with special needs and directed community-based parent education, advocacy, and leadership programs for multiethnic populations and immigrant families. During the past 30 years, he has held senior administrative and faculty positions at the California School of Professional Psychology, the University Affiliated Program at ChildrenŐs Hospital Los Angeles, the USC School of Medicine, and the UCLA Department of Psychiatry.

Program Specialist, Office of Child Care, LA County Chief Administrative Office
Renatta Cooper's expertise in early care and education, public policy, and workforce development come from a career in academic leadership, county government as a former Commissioner for First 5 LA, and as an elected member of the Pasadena Unified School District Board. A lifetime child advocate and a Master Teacher in the Infant Toddler Parent Program, Renatta Cooper spent 21 years on the faculty and in administration at Pacific Oaks College where she was Director of the Jones Prescott Institute/Hixon Center for Early Childhood Education. Today she acts as liaison between the County Office of Child Care and other organizations concerned with strengthening the Early Childhood workforce with the goal of improving educational outcomes for young children in Los Angeles County. In 2006, she co-authored Playing to Get Smart with Elizabeth Jones, published by Teachers College Press.

Chair, Everychild Foundation Public Policy Committee
Vice Chair, Los Angeles Public/Private Funders Partnership for Infants and Toddlers
A former litigator, Denise McCain-Tharnstrom combines personal commitment with public policy advocacy for young children at the local, state and federal level. She is currently the founding Public Policy Chair for the Everychild Foundation, after serving as the Grant Screening Board Chair and as Treasurer. She has published and spoken on environmental policy issues as well as taught Public Policy Formulation at USCŐs School of Policy Planning and Development. Her doctoral dissertation examines the adequacy of political representation of childrenŐs health interests in federal environmental policy implementation.

President, Janis Minton Consulting
With thirty years of experience in public education, Janis is Los Angeles' leading strategic advisor on philanthropic giving and early childhood. As President of Janis Minton Consulting, she provides strategic philanthropic advising to foundations such as The Atlas Family Foundation and the Carl and Roberta Deutsch Foundation. Janis also founded and directed The Day Care Consultation Project at the Early Childhood Center, Cedar's Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles in addition to fulfilling roles for the Santa Monica Unified School District as a School Administrator at the Ocean Park Children's Center and at the Los Angeles County Department of Education in the field of special education with autistic children.

Director, Western Regional Office, ZERO TO THREE
A pediatric nurse, Cindy Oser has worked on infant-toddler health, disability and policy issues for 25 years. She established ZERO TO THREE's Western Regional Office in 2004, after serving as Director of State Policy Initiatives and providing technical assistance to state early intervention and preschool special education programs. Prior to ZERO TO THREE, Oser was the Chief of the Bureau of Early Intervention Services in the Ohio Department of Public Health, where she directed the early intervention system, statewide newborn home visiting for families, the Family Information Network and public health screening programs.

President and CEO, The California Endowment
A pediatrician and recipient of the Council on Foundations' 2008 Distinguished Grantmaker of the Year Award, Bob Ross advances health coverage for all children and the importance of prenatal care. Prior to his appointment in September 2000 as president and chief executive officer for The California Endowment, a health foundation established in 1996 to address the health needs of Californians, Dr. Ross served as director of the Health and Human Services Agency for the County of San Diego and Commissioner of Public Health for the City of Philadelphia. His extensive background as a clinician and public health includes: medical director for LINK School-Based Clinic Program, Camden, New Jersey; instructor of clinical medicine, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia; and faculty member at San Diego State University's School of Public Health.