Skip to content Skip to main navigation Report an accessibility issue

Keynote Speaker Announcement: Lilian Katz

We are thrilled to announce our 2016 keynote speaker, Dr. Lilian Katz!

From the Illinois State Board of Education site:

Photo source: https://will.illinois.edu/illinoispioneers/program/730-pm-thursday-sept.-12-early-childhood-education-pioneer-lilian-katz

Lilian G. Katz is Professor Emerita of Elementary and Early Childhood Education at the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) and is currently Co-Director of ERIC, Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education at the University of Illinois. She is a Past President of the National Association for the Education of Young Children, and the first President of the Illinois Association for the Education of Young Children. Dr. Katz is Editor of the first on-line peer reviewed bilingual early childhood journal, Early Childhood Research & Practice.

Professor Katz is author of more than one hundred publications including articles, chapters, and books about early childhood education, teacher education, child development, and parenting of young children.  For thirteen years she wrote a monthly column for parents of three- and four-year-olds for Parents Magazine. 

Dr. Katz was founding editor of the Early Childhood Research Quarterly, and served as Editor-in-Chief during its first six years.  Her most recent book (co-authored with J. H. Helm) is Young Investigators: The Project Approach in the Early Years.  Her book titled Talks with Teachers of Young Children (1995) is a collection of her best known early essays and several more recent ones. In 2000 she published the second edition of Engaging Children’s Minds: The Project Approach, co-authored with S. C. Chard. It has been translated into several languages, as have many of her other works.

Dr. Katz has lectured in all 50 US states and in 54 countries. She has held visiting posts at universities in Australia, Canada, England, Germany, India, Israel, the West Indies (Barbados campus) and many parts of the USA.  Dr. Katz is the recipient of many honors, including two Fulbright Awards (India & New Zealand), an Honorary Doctor of Letters degree (DLitt.) from Whittier College, Whittier, California and an honorary Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Goteborg in Sweden. In 1997 she served as Nehru Professor at the University of Baroda in India. In 2003 Dr. Katz was appointed Visiting Professorial Fellow at the Institute of Education, University of London, UK.

Professor Katz was born and raised in England and became a US citizen in 1953. She received her B.A. degree cum laude from San Francisco State University (1964) and her Ph.D. in Psychological Studies from Stanford University in 1968. She and her late husband Boris Katz have three grown children, five grandsons and one granddaughter.

The Early Learning Center is so excited to hear from Dr. Katz as her work has influenced much of our practice regarding project work with young children. We know that her insight will enhance the experience of ELI attendees and we look forward to her talk on Friday, July 3rd, 2016 here in Knoxville!

To stay up to date with Early Learning Institute happenings, please join our mailing list here!