Staci Watkins

My career path wasn't what I originally planned. I went to school thinking I would become a physical therapist, but I discovered a field called Child Life and worked in hospitals with young children, explaining what's happening to their body medically in a way that they can understand, in a very developmentally appropriate way. I became very interested in learning more about what children can understand, trauma responses, and how early childhood settings really affect the remainder of your lifetime. That really became my life's work. I spent a lot of time thinking about and studying that, which led to my master's in Child Development and Family Relations. I worked in the nonprofit sector for several years in early childhood education before ending up in higher education. Now I teach early childhood education in our teacher education program, teaching teachers to be teachers in the early childhood education field. I want to teach teachers best practices so that we can make sure that we're making the best settings possible for our youngest learners and the best developmental practices in our classrooms. I'm currently all but dissertation complete in my doctorate in Higher Educational Leadership from Appalachian State University. Completing my doctorate while being a mom of 3 kids, including two adopted children, has been my proudest achievement because that has definitely not been easy.