Communities of Practice

As a staff member of a Child Care Resource and Referral Agency, we are currently going through a Quality Assurance process. I am the coordinator for the process at our agency, and am working with a group of my colleagues to work on the process. Each person has a different area of expertise and something valuable to add to the process, which we all acknowledge as being beneficial to the agency and to our individual programs within the agency. I chose this community of practice because it is one I am part of and one I have worked very hard on. The second community of practice I chose is Child Care Aware of America, formerly NACCRRA. I chose that agency because it plays an important part in the Quality Assurance process for me, but also because they play an important role in the lives of young children. They have members that conduct professional development for CCR&Rs and child care providers, and members that do research child care issues and members that work on public policy, educating the public and working directly with legislators. Finally, I chose my employer, Cornell Cooperative Extension. The Extension system is an extension of Cornell University. Each staff has their own area of expertise and work within their program doing research for Cornell and disseminating the research Cornell does. The Extension staff work closely with Cornell professors and staff on issues that include child development and child care. As the only Extension with a CCR&R as a program, we are in a unique position with a unique perspective to add to the research and development. There are current job opportunities that interest me in the field of psychology and research at universities in New York City. There is also a position at my current employer for ITA Coordinator, which leads a team of ITA Specialists to work with providers to improve their program. In order to obtain the position for psychology research, a PhD is necessary, as well as research experience. For the ITA Coordinator, a Master's Degree is necessary, along with experiene conducting ITAs and experience supervising others and working with providers of all modalities.