Jana Fleming is interim director of the Herr Research Center for Children and Social Policy.
She comes to Erikson from the City Colleges of Chicago, the largest urban community college system in the nation, where she served as executive director of Child Development Studies for six years. She has also been as a consultant to the Joyce Foundation, where she directed the foundation’s grant making in early childhood education.
She has extensive knowledge about child development and how best to prepare teachers to work with young children. Over the past 20 years she has conducted studies on the cost of child care and state prekindergarten programs, the financing of services for children and families, and the relationship between teacher knowledge and practice. Her work has also included evaluating the quality of early education programs, training teachers on best practices in early education, and providing guidance to local communities in developing strategies to improve the delivery of educational and health services to young children.
Prior to joining City Colleges, Dr. Fleming was a research investigator at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She codirected the Early Childhood Leadership Development Program at UNC, providing graduate-level education and training for early childhood professionals in health services, education, social welfare, child care, and family protective services. She was also actively involved in research and leadership development projects in support of North Carolina's Smart Start initiative.