Position: Director of The Edward Zigler Center in Child Development and Social Policy and Professor of Child Psychiatry and Psychology at the Yale Child Study Center
Location: New Haven, CT
Organization: Yale School of Medicine
Walter S. Gilliam is the Elizabeth Mears & House Jameson Professor of Child Psychiatry and Psychology at the Yale Child Study Center, as well as the Director of The Edward Zigler Center in Child Development and Social Policy at Yale School of Medicine. He is a member of the boards of directors for ZERO TO THREE, First Children’s Finance, All Our Kin and the Irving Harris Foundation. He is a fellow of the National Institute for Early Education Research and served as a Senior Advisor to the National Association for the Education of Young Children. Dr. Gilliam is co-recipient, with Drs. Edward Zigler and Stephanie Jones, of the 2008 Grawemeyer Award in Education for the coauthored book, A Vision for Universal Preschool Education.
Dr. Gilliam’s research involves early childhood education and intervention policy analysis (specifically how policies translate into effective services), ways to improve the quality of prekindergarten and child care services, the impact of early childhood education programs on children’s school readiness, implicit bias in early childhood, and effective methods for reducing classroom behavior problems and reducing the incidence of preschool expulsion. His scholarly writing addresses early childhood care and education programs, school readiness, and developmental assessment of young children. Dr. Gilliam has led national analyses of state-funded prekindergarten policies and mandates, how prekindergarten programs are being implemented across the range of policy contexts, and the effectiveness of these programs at improving school readiness and educational achievement, as well as experimental and quasi-experimental studies on methods to improve early education quality. His work frequently has been covered in major national and international news outlets for print, radio, and television. Dr. Gilliam actively provides consultation to state and federal decision-makers.
