Center leadership
Jana Fleming
Director | Email Fleming »
Jana Fleming joined the Herr Center in August 2009 as interim director and was named director in March 2010. She came to Erikson from City Colleges of Chicago, the largest urban community college system in the nation, where she has served as executive director of Child Development Studies since 2003. She has also been a consultant to the Joyce Foundation, directing its grant making in early childhood education.
Fleming has applied her extensive knowledge in child development and teacher preparation to conduct studies on the cost of child care and state prekindergarten programs; means of financing services for children and families; and relationships between teacher knowledge and practice. She has also evaluated the quality of early education programs, trained teachers on best practices in early education, and provided guidance to local communities in developing strategies to improve the delivery of educational and health services to young children.
Prior to joining City Colleges, 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.
Fleming holds a law degree from Duke University and a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Christi Chadwick
Associate Director, Communications | Email Chadwick »
Christi Chadwick works to develop and disseminate information about early childhood research and initiatives in order to inform public policy. Committed to education improvement, Chadwick has served in a number of roles — including grantmaker, program improvement director, program evaluator, and kindergarten teacher — all dedicated to improving the lives of children and families.
Prior to joining the Herr Research Center, Chadwick served as a policy and planning analyst for the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, where she led projects designed to reform the state’s preK–12 education system. In this role, she served as a liaison to the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, of which North Carolina is a governing state. Additionally, she oversaw projects related to the reform of the state’s standards and assessments and served as the project manager for the initial envisioning and development of the state’s Race to the Top funded Instructional Improvement System.
Prior to her work in North Carolina, Chadwick served as the director of Child Development Studies at City Colleges of Chicago, the largest urban community college system in the nation. In this position, she worked to improve the quality of five publicly-funded child development laboratory centers. Chadwick has also worked for the McCormick Foundation and the Harris Foundation.
Chadwick holds a master’s degree in public policy from the Harris School at the University of Chicago and bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education from the University of North Texas.
Erikson faculty associates
Jon Korfmacher
Read faculty profile » | Email Korfmacher »
Aisha Ray
Read faculty profile » | Email Ray »
Staff
Juliet Bromer
Research Scientist | Email Bromer »
Bromer is currently the principal investigator on the Evaluation of a Relationship-Based Professional Development Program for Support Staff Working with Home-Based Providers, Family Child Care Networks project, and the Early Childhood Specialist Program: Lessons Learned and Future Planning project. She also serves as an expert consultant for the Family Provider Relationship Quality Measurement project and a consultant to a social capital development and child care in low-income neighborhoods project with Illinois Action for Children. Bromer continues to disseminate findings from the LISC Family Child Care Network Impact Study and is an action editor for a special issue of the Early Childhood Research Quarterly on family child care. Her past work includes research on the family and community support roles of child care providers across settings and the development of a national accreditation system and quality standards for family child care. Bromer holds a B.A. from Columbia University, an M.S. in education from Bank Street College of Education, and a Ph.D. in human development from the University of Chicago.
Namrita Chawla
Research Associate | Email Chawla »
Chawla is currently the project director for the Illinois Birth to Five Evaluation. Previously, she worked as a research associate and consultant for Harder+Company Community Research in San Diego, California. There, she managed and directed program evaluations and needs assessments for a variety of programs including First 5 San Diego’s Preschool for All and Parent Education Programs, Child Welfare Services of San Diego, and 211 San Diego. She holds a B.A in English, with a psychology minor, from the University of Pennsylvania and a M.P.P. from Pepperdine University.
Betsy Coleman
Program Assistant | Email Coleman »
Vital in her role, Coleman supports the center staff, working on all projects in various capacities. In addition, she manages project and center budgets, coordinates center activities, serves as the office manager, and provides research assistance on center projects. Coleman continues to expand her knowledge of child development by taking classes at Erikson Institute. She holds a bachelor’s degree in communications from John Carroll University.
Jessica Fulford
Research Assistant | Email Fulford »
Fulford is currently working on the Illinois Birth to Five Evaluation, as well as the Child-Parent Psychotherapy Learning Collaborative with Jon Korfmacher. Previously, she worked on the NIEER Preschool Inputs and Children’s Outcomes project. Prior to joining Erikson, Fulford worked with Prevent Blindness America and United Way of Metropolitan Chicago. She holds a B.A. in communications from Bradley University and a M.S. in child development from Erikson Institute.
Jessica Manvell
Research Associate | Email Manvell »
Manvell is currently the project coordinator for the Educating Dual Language Learners in Chicago Public Schools Project. She has also been the project coordinator for the Illinois Birth to Five Evaluation. Prior to joining Erikson, she worked for the Work Scheduling Study at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration, as well as the Center for WorkLife Law and the National Women’s Law Center in Washington, D.C. Manvell holds a B.S. in human development from Cornell University and a M.P.P. from the Harris School of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago.
Mariel Sparr
Research Assistant | Email Sparr »
Sparr is currently working on the Illinois Birth to Five Evaluation, as well as the Home Visiting Program Quality Assessment Project with Jon Korfmacher. She also worked on the Illinois Kindergarten Readiness Assessment Planning Initiative. Sparr is currently a third-year doctoral student at Erikson Institute, with a research interest in how early intervention programs and public policies support disadvantaged families with young children. Before coming to Erikson, Sparr worked on a large-scale study of a parent engagement intervention designed to bolster school readiness among Early Head Start and Head Start children in Nebraska. She holds a B.A. in psychology from the University of Missouri and an M.A. in educational psychology from the University of Nebraska.