Former Part-Time Instructor Returning to Campus as Event Speaker

The bureau director for early learning services in the state's Office of Child Development a former part-time instructor at Pennsylvania College of Technology will be the featured speaker when the Central Susquehanna Association for the Education of Young Children holds its annual meeting on the college's main campus next week.

The session will begin at 7 p.m. Monday in Room 100 (the TV Lounge) of the Bush Campus Center. After a brief business meeting, Deborah S.Mathias will update the group's members on important and new statewide changes and initiatives in the field.

A former adjunct instructor at Penn College, she is the founder and director of the child-care program at Snyder-Union-Mifflin Child Development Inc. in Lewisburg. Among her many contributions to the field, she has facilitated conference sessions with the National Association for the Education of Young Children and the Pennsylvania Child Care Association, and has long coordinated professional development for care providers in a nine-county area.

Mathias, who holds a degree in early childhood education from Bucknell University, received the 2001 Award for Excellence from the Early Childhood Training System and the PACCA Award of Excellence in 2004. The Office of Child Development was established by Pennsylvania's Department of Public Welfare in September 2004 to focus on early care and education; Mathias joined its staff earlier this year.

A good turnout of members and students is expected for the meeting, including students taking the new classes in early childhood program administration as part of their work toward the Pennsylvania early childhood director credential .

For more information about early childhood education and other majors in Penn College's School of Integrated Studies, call (570) 327-4521, send e-mail or visit online.