McNally to Lead Education Programs, Research at Child Development Center

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Shelley McNally will lead the education programs in the Jean Tyson Child Development Study Center.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Shelley McNally, who has worked as a family and consumer science educator or in child development since 1998, is the new clinical assistant professor and executive director of education programs at the Jean Tyson Child Development Study Center at the University of Arkansas.

“I’m very pleased and excited to announce the appointment of Dr. McNally to the leadership of the Jean Tyson Child Development Study Center, as well as to the faculty of the human development and family sciences program in the School of Human Environmental Sciences,” said Betsy Garrison, professor and director of the school in the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences. “She brings a wealth of experience and education to the center.”

The center has a three-fold mission:

• Provide a model early-childhood facility for children ages eight weeks to five years
• Serve as a teaching laboratory for students in human development and family sciences and other disciplines across campus
• Serve as a research facility for faculty and graduate students

McNally’s responsibilities include leading management of the children’s program; working with center faculty and faculty researchers; maintaining national accreditation; training future early childhood education professionals; working with families; making key enrollment decisions; providing support and education to parents; and collaborating on research using the center.

McNally earned her doctorate in curriculum and instruction in early childhood education from the University of Toledo in 2016, her master’s degree in human and consumer sciences-early childhood education in 2006 and her bachelor’s degree in early childhood and elementary education in 1998, both from Ohio University.

From 1998 to 2007 and from 2009 to 2011 McNally was a master teacher at Ohio University’s Child Development Center. She planned and implemented a curriculum for children aged six weeks to five years, coordinated and collaborated with interns and laboratory students, and managed communication between school and home. From 2007 to 2009, she was a family and consumer science educator with Ohio State University for Vinton County. She led family and consumer science programming in the county, worked with other county agencies and groups, and developed and secured grant funding.

She has also worked as a first- and second-grade teacher at Children’s Discovery Center’s Discovery School in Toledo for the 2011-12 academic year and as a graduate assistant in the University of Toledo’s Department of Early Childhood, Physical and Special Education since 2012.

Additional experience includes serving as a distance learning course instructor of early literacy, language and social studies at the University of Toledo for the 2015 spring semester and at Ohio University for the 2011 spring semester, and as an adjunct instructor teaching several classes at Ohio University from 2001 through 2007.

More than 110 faculty, staff and students regularly use the center for academics and research while providing quality care and education to more than 100 students. The center is accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, placing it among the top 10 percent of private-sector childcare facilities in the nation. Prior to its 2012 opening, the program’s lab schools – U of A Nursery School and U of A Infant Development Center – had been accredited since 2008.

About the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences: Bumpers College provides life-changing opportunities to position and prepare graduates who will be leaders in the businesses associated with foods, family, the environment, agriculture, sustainability and human quality of life; and who will be first-choice candidates of employers looking for leaders, innovators, policy makers and entrepreneurs. The college is named for Dale Bumpers, former Arkansas governor and longtime U.S. senator who made the state prominent in national and international agriculture.

About the University of Arkansas: The University of Arkansas provides an internationally competitive education for undergraduate and graduate students in more than 200 academic programs. The university contributes new knowledge, economic development, basic and applied research, and creative activity while also providing service to academic and professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the University of Arkansas among only 2 percent of universities in America that have the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the University of Arkansas among its top American public research universities. Founded in 1871, the University of Arkansas comprises 10 colleges and schools and maintains a low student-to-faculty ratio that promotes personal attention and close mentoring.