Richard Cohen, M.A. has proudly been an early childhood professional for over twenty years.
For the past thirteen years, Richard has traveled the world as a motivational speaker/instructor, facilitating innovative, thought-provoking, interactive adult learning experiences for communities of early childhood teachers, administrators, caregivers and parents.
Prior to this position, Richard served as international Vice President, Education of Learning Care Group. There he was responsible for overseeing the developmental and educational needs of thousands of child care centers, tens of thousands of early childhood professionals and hundreds of thousands of children and families all over the globe.
At Learning Care Group, Richard created the Reggio Emilia-inspired curriculum, The Empowered Child and the multiple intelligences-based curriculum, LifeSmart. Most notably, Richard developed his most exciting project to date: the Learning Care System, a comprehensive online lesson-planning system that allows teachers to use authentic observations and assessments, correlated with their state's quality early learning standards, to provide truly intentional, emergent curriculum based on both children's interests and their unique developmental needs.
In recent years, Richard served as Early Childhood Training Specialist for the California Institute on Human Services at Sonoma State University. There he worked with the California Department of Education, Child Development Division developing the "Desired Results for Children and Families" Training and Technical Assistance Project.
Previously, as Manager of Play Programming at Brookfield Zoo in Illinois, Richard designed a revolutionary, new children's zoo experience, "Explore! A Child's Nature," which won the American Zoo and Aquarium Association's (AZA) 2001 Outstanding Exhibit Award.
Richard served as the Associate Director of Education at Kohl Children's Museum and as the Early Childhood Staff Trainer at Maryville Academy, a residential shelter for abused, neglected and abandoned children in Illinois.
In his first years as an early childhood professional, in the positions he describes as "the best jobs of my life," Richard was an infant classroom teacher, a toddler classroom teacher, a preschool classroom teacher and a kindergarten teacher!
Over the years, Richard has been an instructor for the Erikson Institute's professional development series as well as the Anti-Defamation League's " A World Of Difference" Institute. Richard was a CDA advisor for Harold Washington College, an NAEYC accreditation facilitator for the Office of Catholic Schools and a teacher supervisor for National Louis University's "Teach For America" elementary education program. Additionally, Richard was adjunct faculty at Triton College and St. Augustine College in Illinois, teaching "The Theory Of Play," "Creative Activities for the Young Child" and "Child, Family and Community".
Richard received his Masters Degree in Human Development from the world-renowned early childhood institution, Pacific Oaks College. He is an active member of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and the International Play Association (IPA).
Richard is currently hard at work writing his first book, "Zen and the Art of Early Childhood Education," which chronicles the inspirational ideas, insights and perspectives he has collected from the thousands of early childhood professionals with whom he has worked and played around the world.
Click here to view a history of Richard's work
email: richie11@mindspring.com
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