Sandra L. Morris - Center Co-Director

Sandra's focus areas include managing Center administration and development, supervising product development and dissemination, and directing research activities. Sandra's course work in elementary education, her varied experience with young children and families, and her many opportunities to provide adult education contribute to her role in the Center. Since 1988, she has developed curriculum in a variety of delivery options—self-study, face-to-face, and online.

Sandra's particular interest and expertise include promoting effective adult learning practices, overcoming the challenges of training in rural areas, and refining project materials, especially the Child Care plus+ newsletter. She actively promotes and provides training, technical assistance, and ongoing support for practitioners who currently—or are preparing to—provide care and education for young children with disabilities in their early childhood programs.

Sandra and Susan co-facilitate Adult Learning Principles and Practices for Early Childhood Trainers, a one-credit course for early childhood trainers in Montana funded by the Early Childhood Project. Sandra guides the development and implementation of an alternative delivery option for early childhood professional development using the self-study, home-based model she developed in 1995. This model has been particularly effective in reaching students enrolled in the University of Montana-Western's EC Rural courses, in the Child Care plus+ Guiding the Behavior of Young Children course, the Inclusion Basics course, and the Newsletter Training. Sandra directs recruitment of participants, data collection, and dissemination of findings for the Child Care plus+ Research Project funded by the Child Care Bureau.

Susan Harper-Whalen - Center Co-Director

Susan's focus areas include Center Administration and Development as well as supporting Professional Development activities (for practitioners as well as for adult learning facilitators) and Model Demonstration in the affiliated Learning and Belonging Preschool - a licensed childcare program on the University of Montana campus. In this capacity, Susan coordinates the efforts of Child Care plus+ staff members to facilitate week-long inclusion training for trainers--primarily from Child Care Resource and Referral programs--across the nation called the Child Care plus+ Institutes on Inclusion: Training the Trainer.

Currently, Susan also directs two grant funded projects for the Center - Early Childhood Rural (EC Rural) and Keeping Everyone in Early Childhood Programs (KEEP): Maintaining Inclusive Placements for Children with Challenging Behaviors. As Co-Director of EC Rural (Co-directed by Sandra L. Morris) , Susan draws upon her early childhood teaching experience and more than 15 years of instructing at the college level to develop and evaluate a self-study format for delivery of 24 credits of core early childhood coursework for child care professionals in Montana. The KEEP project reflects Susan's interest in finding ways to better meet the child care needs of young children with challenging behaviors and their families. This four year Model Demonstration Project works with 6 community-based child care programs to explore a progressive model of support for children with challenging behaviors that is grounded in quality early childhood practices, core policies and practices (a range of positive behavior guidance strategies, family centered practices, and a team-based approach), and individualized supports as needed. Specialized training for child care providers will be developed in response to project findings with a focus on strategies and skills that are responsive to the context of community-based programs and typical child care routines.

Karen Martin - Montana Statewide Inclusion Coordinator

As coordinator of a five-year state funded grant on inclusion, Karen trains and supports early childhood educators and trainers all over Montana and designs and facilitates self-study courses on quality in early childhood programs. With a background as an elementary school teacher, for over eight years Karen owned and operated two large inclusive child care centers in southeast Virginia, caring for over 250 children ages 6 weeks to 12 years and employing over 50 caregivers. In this capacity, she contracted with three local school systems to provide inclusive care for preschool age children with disabilities and served as a trainer through the Virginia Department of Education on including children with disabilities in community-based programs.

After the sale of her centers, Karen went to work for Child Development Resources where she was a training consultant on inclusion for two years before moving to Montana. In this capacity she traveled to a half dozen states providing training directly to providers as well as to state level trainers. Karen is also familiar with the parent perspective, as she is the mother of three children, one of whom was born with Down Syndrome. Karen has been an active advocate for children for 18 years and continues to design and conduct training sessions for early childhood educators, parents, early intervention specialists, and special educators around the country.

Sara Leishman- Center Coordinator

Sara provides administrative as well as receptionist support to the Center Staff. She maintains and updates the Child Care plus+ mailing list and other databases. She manages product inventory and distributes resources to individuals and organizations nationwide. Sara is also responsible for the upkeep of the Child Care plus+ Assessment Library and is the webmaster of our website, so if you have any questions or comments, please send her an email!