Staff

Elisa L. Klein, PhD
SRCD/AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow

Elisa Klein is a Society for Research in Child Development and American Association for the Advancement of Science Policy Fellow.  Executive branch AAAS policy fellows work in various federal agencies to learn about federal policy making and the role of science in the policy-making process. Additionally, they provide scientific expertise to policy makers throughout government.

Dr. Klein comes to OBSSR from her position as an Associate Professor in the Department of Human Development and the Institute for Child Study at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she conducts research in child social policy, teacher education and young children’s understanding of their early school experiences, and teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in child development and early education.

She was a Visiting Scientist and Child Development Research Fellow in the Research, Demonstration and Evaluation Branch (now part of Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation) of the Administration on Children and Families in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services during an earlier leave from her academic position. Dr. Klein was also the director of the University of Maryland’s first child care research and demonstration program, the Center for Young Children.  Prior to her positions at Maryland, she was a faculty member at The Ohio State University, Columbus.  She has worked extensively with the Maryland State Department of Education in the development of early childhood policies such as universal preschool education and has been a consultant to many local, non-profit, and governmental agencies, including Head Start, The Children’s Defense Fund, the Department of Education, NIH, and the National Science Foundation, on a variety of issues related to young children’s development and education. 

Dr. Klein received her Ph.D. in Human Development from The Pennsylvania State University.