Mary Smithberger, M.A., Education,
1995
Mary Smithberger came to SSU after meeting Dr. Patricia Nourot,
a member of the education faculty who conducted training seminars
for professional staff in the California Department of Education.
Having earned her B.A. in child development at Ohio State University,
Smithberger decided to take a class from Dr. Nourot, which meant
commuting from Sacramento to Rohnert Park. She had been considering
pursuing an advanced degree and now felt she had found the place
to do so. "Classes were interesting and challenging and several
members of the faculty have had lasting impressions on my thoughts
and beliefs about education and its role in society," says
Smithberger. "My experience at SSU renewed my dedication to
both work on behalf of children and their families and to professionalize
the field of early childhood education," she states. She completed
her Master's in education at SSU in 1995.
Smithberger has been a consultant in the Child Development Division
since 1981. She is responsible for the Infant Capacity Building
Plan, which entails developing and coordinating the implementation
of a comprehensive plan to utilize $12 million in federal funds
to improve the quality and quantity of child care services for infants,
toddlers and their families in California. The goal of the plan
is to create support systems at the state and local level that will
create systemic change in the way child care services for children
under the age of three years of age are developed and provided to
families on a daily basis. Smithberger also oversees the Program
for Infant/Toddler Caregivers (PITC), a nationally acclaimed project
developed to improve the quality of child care services for infants,
toddlers and their families, which has become the primary vehicle
for implementation of the Infant Capacity Building Plan. It is a
long-term collaborative project created through a partnership between
the CDE/CDD and WestED. (WestEd is one of the regional education
labs supported by the U.S. Department of Education.)
Smithberger is also working with several quality improvement programs
such as the Map to Inclusive Child Care Project, a new federal project
in California to address the need to create more inclusive child
care environments for children with disabilities and other special
needs and to assist child care providers in meeting the requirements
of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Beginning Together, a
partnership with SSU's California Institute for Human Services,
which coordinates the development of training for PITC trainers
about supporting inclusion of infants and toddlers with disabilities
and other special needs in child care settings.
Prior to her current post, Smithberger served as coordinator of
the Head Start Collaboration Project; lead consultant for the Child
Care and Development Block Grant (a $98 million federal program);
liaison to Community College Chancellor's Child Development Advisory
Committee, adjunct faculty at Sierra Community College; Children's
Center Director, Associated Students at San Diego State University;
and program analyst, Division of Social Services, Ohio Department
of Public Welfare, Columbus Ohio.
Smithberger was the recipient of the 2001 Supported Life Institute
Award for leadership in supporting inclusion of all people, including
individuals with development disabilities, in the community, the
1997 State Information Officers Council Award for development of
Bridges, the newsletter of the California Head Start Collaboration
Project, the 1997 Outstanding Service Award from the Associated
Students at SDSU, and the 1991 California Department of Education
Certificate of Appreciation for Federal Block Grant Implementation
Activities.
