Head Start & Early Childhood Education Summit
September 6, 2025
9:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Cornell Tech – Verizon Executive Education Center
Roosevelt Island, 34 North Loop Rd., New York, NY 10044
This event, hosted by the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research (BCTR) in partnership with New York State Council on Children and Families, will bring together distinguished early childhood researchers, policymakers, and Head Start practitioners to examine the program’s research foundation, policy implications, and practical applications.
The BCTR is hosting this conversation both to recognize the legacy of the namesake of the center, Urie Bronfenbrenner, and the contributions of his research to the founding of Head Start and to contribute to a moment in our society when evidence-based analysis of and dialogue around early childhood education programs is crucial. Conversations will center around two topics, spread across two panels of experts.
Agenda
Keynote Speaker
Dr. Laura Bellows
Associate Professor, Division of Nutritional Sciences
Cornell University
“The Road Ahead for Head Start: Building on Success, Meeting Today’s Challenges, Shaping Tomorrow’s Opportunities”
Bellows is a nationally recognized public health nutritionist who focuses on community-based behavioral interventions. She holds a B.S. in Exercise Science and Health Promotion from Miami University, an M.P.H. in Human Nutrition from the University of Michigan, and a Ph.D. in Community Nutrition from Colorado State University.
Prior to Cornell, Bellows spent twenty impactful years at Colorado State University, where she studied the development of early childhood eating and activity habits in communities facing some of the greatest barriers to health, working with rural, Hispanic/Latino, and low-resource populations.
During her Ph.D., Bellows was a Head Start Scholar. She has spent 25 years working with Head Start communities in Colorado, New York and nationally. Currently her work blends intervention optimization, digital health tools, and systems approaches to promote healthy equity in the early childhood ecosystem and address women’s health, including the early childhood education workforce and mothers of young children.
Her leadership has been nationally recognized: she received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) from President Obama, the Mid-Career Award from the Society of Nutrition Education and Behavior, and the Evelyn Milman Faculty Fellowship from the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research at Cornell University. She currently serves on multiple editorial boards and is the Director of Graduate Studies for Cornell’s field of nutrition.
Research Panel
This panel will examine the current state of science on high-quality early childhood education’s, its impact on youth well-being and success into adulthood, as well as broader economic and social benefits.
Moderator: Dr. Neil Lewis, Jr., Nancy and Peter Meinig Family Investigator in the Life Sciences at Cornell University and Weill Cornell Medicine; associate professor of communication, medicine, and public policy; and co-director of the Action Research Collaborative and the Center for Racial Justice and Equitable Futures
Dr. Laura Bellows
Cornell University
Associate Professor, Division of Nutritional Sciences
Dr. Taryn Morrissey
American University
Professor, Associate Dean of Research, Department of Public Administration and Policy, School of Public Affairs
Dr. John Sipple
Cornell University
Professor, Department of Global Development
Dr. Anamarie Whitaker
University of Delaware
Assistant Professor, Department of Human Development and Family Sciences
Policy & Practice Panel
This panel will analyze federal and state policies related to early childhood education and their documented impacts, and explore how early childhood educators and administrators engage with research and policy, featuring field perspectives.
Moderator: Dr. Laura Tach, Sociology Department Chair, Professor of Public Policy & Sociology, Cornell University
Dr. Ajay Chaudry
New York University
Research Scholar, Institute of Human Development and Social Change, Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Services
Dr. Zoelene Hill
Partnerships in Health
Founder & Principal Investigator
Dr. Maria Mavrides Calderon
CUNY Hunter College
Assistant Professor, Early Childhood Program
Dr. Mark Nagasawa
Bank Street College of Education
Director, Straus Center for Young Children & Families
Patricia Persell, M.S.Ed.
New York State Council on Children & Families
Early Childhood Policy Director