Team

Catherine Main has more than 25 years of work on behalf of young children and their families in the state of Illinois. She has become the go-to expert on Early Childhood Education (ECE), leading the different ECE programs at UIC. Cathy is the leader of the Early Childhood Expansion and Innovation project support by the Pelino gift.

Dr. Kate Zinsser is an Associate Professor at UIC and studies early childhood social-emotional school readiness. Kate has worked with Cathy on program evaluations around early childhood education and brings this expertise to the team. She will guide the “how do we know that what we are doing is working?” research part.

Dr. Kathleen Sheridan is an Associate Professor at UIC, studying early STEM literacy and professional development for early childhood educators. She is the developer and designer of the Science@Home Professional Development online courses, which makes stronger early childhood educators.

Dr. Victoria Trinder is a Clinical Associate Professor at UIC. She coordinates the elementary teacher education program and has worked with Cathy to bring early childhood credentials to new teachers (the summer 2020 cohort). Her expertise will help build new coursework with early childhood content for elementary-level teachers.