Laura J. Colker, Ed.D., is the President of L.J. Colker & Associates. She is an author, lecturer, and trainer in early childhood education with over 40 years of experience. She has written or co-authored over 150 books and articles for educators, administrators, and families. Colker is most widely known as a co-author of Teaching Strategies’ The Creative Curriculum for Preschoolers. Now in its 6th edition, The Creative Curriculum is the most widely used preschool curriculum in the U.S. She is also a co-author of The Creative Curriculum for Family Child Care and the first edition of the Creative Curriculum for Infants’ Toddlers, and Twos. Her most recent book is High-Quality Early Childhood Programs: The What, Why, and How, co-written with Derry Koralek. She and Koralek also have a forthcoming book from Redleaf Press: Making Lemonade: Teaching Young Children How to Think Optimistically.
For 25 years, Colker was an expert consultant to the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA). In addition to training and providing technical assistance to teachers and administrators, Laura was responsible for helping to design, found, and evaluate the military’s Sure Start program. Based at 63 military installations overseas, Sure Start is the military’s equivalent of Head Start. The Sure Start program is now a line item in the Department of Defense budget.
For nine years, Colker was a contributing editor to TYC, the National Association for the Education of Young Children’s (NAEYC) journal for preschool teachers. She is also the author of the NAEYC Publication, The Cooking Book: Fostering Young Children’s Learning and Delight. Colker has also been a consultant to Reading Is Fundamental (RIF), The Council for Professional Development, Zero to Three, WestEd, the Head Start Bureau, NACCRA (now Child Care Aware), Macro International, The ERIC Document Reproduction Service, The University of Minnesota, Sonoma State University, the Los Angeles Unified School District, all of the military services’ child development programs, and numerous other education-related institutions and organizations.
Colker is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. She has M.A. and Ed.D. degrees from The George Washington University.
