Herold Added to Bumpers College Faculty in Early Childhood Education

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Laura Herold

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Laura Herold has joined the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences at the University of Arkansas as a faculty member in the School of Human Environmental Sciences.

Herold is a clinical assistant professor of human development and family sciences.

Her research has centered on language and literacy development in birth through kindergarten aged children, the impact of poverty on early knowledge development, and improving the educational and social outcomes of at-risk preschoolers.

"We are thrilled that Dr. Herold has joined us," said Betsy Garrison, director of the School of Human Environmental Sciences. "She is going to make a pivotal difference in the way that college students learn to teach young children. She will be a leader in the birth to kindergarten undergraduate degree program, which will soon involve, for the first time in Arkansas, a teaching license."

Herold earned her doctorate in educational studies with a focus on early childhood education at the University of Michigan. She earned her master's in early childhood education at the University of Michigan and her bachelor's in German studies and music history and theory at Oberlin College.

Working with Susan Neuman, she began her career co-teaching classes at the University of Michigan and worked as an instructor in 2014, teaching the "Literacy Development and the Young Child" class.

Herold was also a teacher at the Boys and Girls Club of Oberlin in Ohio, and a preschool teacher at Annie's Children's Center and a Jumpstart team leader at Eastern Washtenaw Multicultural Academy in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She has also served as a research assistant to Neuman and Holly Craig at the University of Michigan.

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.