Library: News Release
OKLAHOMA CAPITOL -- Ron Haskins, Ph.D., concludes Oklahoma’s 2008 Practice and Policy Lectures addressing the quality of early childhood education and its societal and economic impacts on society at noon, Tuesday, Dec. 9 in the Governor’s Blue Room, Oklahoma State Capitol, Oklahoma City.
Haskins is a senior fellow in the Economic Studies Program and co-director of the Center on Children and Families at the Brookings Institution and senior consultant at the Annie E. Casey Foundation in Baltimore. His areas of expertise include welfare reform, childcare, child support enforcement, child protection and family composition and marriage.
Haskins will examine research showing quality early childhood education can make a significant contribution to reducing the achievement gap between children of poor, middle-class and upper class families. Over time, quality early childhood education may lower poverty and economic inequalities.
From February to December 2002, he served as the senior advisor to the president for welfare policy at the White House. In 2000, Haskins received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement; and in 2005, he received the President’s Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Field of Human Services from the American Public Human Services Association.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in history, a master’s degree in education and a doctorate in Developmental Psychology from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The lecture series is sponsored by the Oklahoma Department of Human Services and the University of Oklahoma Center for Public Management. The yearlong series provides thought-provoking presentations by experts in their fields on Oklahoma’s emerging policy issues, trends and best practices. The lectures are free and open to the public.
A pre-lecture reception with light lunch will start at 11:30 a.m. in the Governor’s Conference Room in the Oklahoma State Capitol building. No reservations required.
For more information, contact the OKDHS Office of Planning, Research and Statistics at (405) 521-3552. For information on upcoming lectures and archives of previous lectures, visit the Practice and Policy Lecture Series Web site at: www.oucpm.org/lectureseries.
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