Position: Cille and Ron Williams Endowed Community Chair for Early Childhood Education
Post Date: April 30, 2018
Located in the Department of Teacher Education in UNK’s College of Education, the largest producer of early childhood teachers in Nebraska, the Cille and Ron Williams Endowed Community Chair for Early Childhood Education at the University of Nebraska – Kearney and the Buffett Early Childhood Institute will provide leadership in the area of early childhood education and development and will serve as a catalyst for research, service, and outreach in conjunction with the mission and activities of the Buffett Institute and the University of Nebraska.
The Community Chair reports to the Chair of the Teacher Education Department, and 25 percent of the Community Chair’s time will be dedicated to the Buffett Early Childhood Institute. She or he will provide leadership in early childhood teacher education and outreach to the state, and will participate in and initiate programs and research in conjunction with the Buffett Institute with the goal of increasing the quality, quantity, and skills of those working with children from birth to Grade 3 and their families in Nebraska. The Community Chair will adopt an integrated approach to early childhood education and development through theory, research, and practice that links empirical research with the creation of programs, ideas, and tools for practitioners and community members. As a leader in early childhood education in the state, the Community Chair will serve on statewide committees and initiatives and represent UNK and the Buffett Institute to statewide and national constituents.
The ideal candidate will have: a track record of funded research and publication, broad multidisciplinary intellectual interests that span the domains of early childhood research and practice, an integrative approach that links research to policy and practice, an understanding of the importance early childhood workforce training and of the needs of rural communities.
Requirements include a doctoral degree in education or closely allied discipline; a record of research, scholarly publications and teaching sufficient to merit appointment to the rank of tenured associate or full professor; classroom experience teaching P-12 students with a particular focus on early childhood, a track record of significant community engagement; experience in obtaining external funding and working in interdisciplinary settings; and demonstrated ability to work with colleagues across multiple disciplines and campuses in a collaborative fashion.
