Nancy H. Apfel, Ed.M., a graduate of Tufts University and the Harvard Graduate School of Education, is Research Associate in the Child Study Center and Psychology Department of Yale University. At Harvard University, before coming to Yale, Nancy studied children's early home environments, collaboratively developing with Jean Carew and others a measure of parent and child interaction. At Yale University, Nancy joined William Kessen, Greta Fein, and Alison Clarke-Stewart in an evaluation of different models of early intervention with families of young children. Nancy was also involved in a national study called the Infant Health and Development Program. For this Stanford University-based project, which examined the effects of intervention on the development of prematurely born infants, Nancy served as evaluation coordinator for the Yale University Medical Center site. Continuing to evaluate program effects, Nancy has been collaborating with Victoria Seitz in longitudinal studies of various educational and family support programs, including Head Start, Follow Through, the Yale Child Welfare Program, and a school-based program for pregnant and parenting teens in New Haven, Connecticut. Nancy and Vicki have been continuing an 18-year longitudinal study of school-age mothers and their children. Nancy has studied and written about the various ways families support their individual members through life transitions, with a particular interest in teen motherhood.
Sally Provence, M.D. (1916-1993), was Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics at the Yale Child Study Center and the Yale School of Medicine and was a national leader in the fields of pediatrics and child development. A graduate of Mary Hardin-Baylor College in 1937 (now the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor) and Baylor University College of Medicine in 1941, Sally trained in pediatrics at Children's Medical Center in Dallas. Before coming to Yale, Sally had a fellowship at Cornell New York Hospital with Dr. Milton J.E. Senn, one of her earliest mentors. In this fellowship she began to integrate information from child psychiatry and social science into her view of pediatrics. At the Yale Child Study Center, Sally founded and served as Director of the world-renowned Child Development Unit from 1951 until her retirement in 1986.
Sally wrote eloquently about the development of young children and their need for nurturing environments, about creating quality child care for them, and about providing support and guidance to their families in her many books and articles, which include Infants in Institutions: A Comparison of Their Development with Family-Reared Infants in the First Year of Life (co-authored with Rose C. Lipton, International Universities Press, 1962), The Challenge of Daycare (co-authored with Audrey Naylor and June Patterson, Yale University Press, 1977), and Working with Disadvantaged Parents and Their Children: Science and Practice Issues (co-authored with Audrey Naylor, Yale University Press, 1983).
A forceful child advocate dedicated to improving the lives of children and parents, Sally was a founding member and past president of ZERO TO THREE: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families. This center has become a well-respected national network of support and technical services for professionals who work with young children and families. Sally's many achievements were recognized by the American Academy of Pediatrics when it awarded her with its C. Anderson Aldrich Award for her influence on the fields of pediatrics and child development in 1975. Her profound influence in these fields continues to be recognized. Hillary Rodham Clinton presented ZERO TO THREE's Dolley Madison Award for Outstanding Lifelong Contribution to the Development and Well-being of Very Young Children and Their Families to Sally in 1993, posthumously. In 2000, Sally's memory was honored when ZERO TO THREE presented its first Sally Provence Award for Excellence in Infant Family Practice.
Edward Zigler, Ph.D., was Sterling Professor of Psychology, Emeritus, at Yale University and Director Emeritus of the Yale Center in Child Development and Social Policy. He was one of the planners of Project Head Start and was the federal official responsible for administering the program when he served as the first director of the U.S. Office of Child Development (now the Administration on Children, Youth, and Families). He was also Chief of the U.S. Children's Bureau. He regularly testified as an expert witness before congressional committees and had served as a consultant to every presidential administration since that of Lyndon Johnson. Dr. Zigler conducted extensive research on topics related to child development, psychopathology, and mental retardation and authored hundreds of scholarly publications.
