Kristie Kauerz, Ed.D. is Research Assistant Professor of P-3 Policy and Leadership at the University of Washington (UW) and specializes in education reform efforts that address the continuum of learning from birth through 3rd grade. Kristie's expertise spans policy, research, and practice as well as birth-to-five system-building and K-12 reform.
Kristie's expertise is based in her work with more than 40 states and dozens of school districts around the country. Kristie's experience includes work at the state level, as an early childhood and P-3 policy advisor for two former Colorado governors – Bill Ritter, Jr. and Roy Romer; at the national level, as program director for early learning at Education Commission of the States; and in academia as director of a PreK-3rd Grade Initiative at Harvard Graduate School of Education and as a research fellow at the National Center for Children and Families (Teachers College, Columbia University).
Kauerz is the lead author on the Framework for Planning, Implementing, and Evaluating PreK-3rd Grade Approaches, a tool to guide school, district, community, and state efforts. She also has authored and co-authored numerous articles, book chapters, and reports on topics ranging from state kindergarten policies to early childhood governance to P-3 policy alignment. She co-authored the original Washington State Early Learning and Development Benchmarks, as well as a book on improving the early care and education teaching workforce. She is co-editor of Early Childhood Systems: Transforming Early Learning, published by TC Press in March 2012.
Kristie is a proud graduate of Colorado College, American University, and Teachers College at Columbia University.