Staff and Partners

Our Staff  

The Early Educator Support Office at East Carolina University currently employs nearly thirty full and part time staff members. The program has a lead program coordinator, principal investigator and administrative assistant who are housed on the main campus of ECU. Each region consists of a field-based team of mentors and evaluators with a Regional Lead serving as liaison between the project coordinator and field-based staff. The program also utilizes a quality assurance specialist position to establish and maintain fidelity among evaluators as part of the ongoing Interrater Reliability Project.  The mentors and evaluators employed by the hub have been carefully chosen and were identified during their teaching careers as exemplary early childhood professionals.  Many program staff members hold advanced degrees and present at local, state, and national conferences as well as teach early childhood courses at various institutions of higher education throughout eastern North Carolina. Mentors and Evaluators participate in frequent, ongoing professional development. This occurs through field-based support, collaborative groups, monthly full staff and regional meetings and a new staff orientation and onboarding program. All staff members are expected to participate in reflective, research-based practice and work towards established goals for continuous professional growth.     

Our Collaborative Partners  

The Early Educator Support Office at East Carolina University has a rich history of utilizing collaborative partners; as full-time mentor and evaluator positions have been added, EES has developed the capacity to provide services to all teachers in classrooms who enroll NC Pre-K students.  Collaborative Partners are still used in Developmental Day classrooms; these partners are educators, program specialists and administrators who take on the additional role of mentoring or evaluation for their programs.   Collaborative partners complete all steps of the evaluation process for the teachers they serve and provide unique knowledge and perspectives on the requirements of teachers in developmental day classrooms; the Early Educator Support Office communicates with these partners to provide updates, discusses questions or concerns and offer additional support as needed. Our collaborative partners are dedicated to supporting the professional growth of teachers in their programs and are a vital part of the teacher support program.