Dr. Kimberly Hale is a professor at East Tennessee State University in Educational Foundations and Special and currently serves as the Director of the Center of Excellence in Early Childhood Learning and Development. The Center of Excellence in Early Childhood is administratively housed in the ETSU Clemmer College of Education and Human Development. The Center of Excellence receives annual funding from the Tennessee Higher Education Commission to support model programs for children, birth to age 8, as well as serve as a research incubator and professional development hub. The Center of Excellence in Early Childhood holds several State services contracts, including the Expanding Horizons Early Intervention Resource Agency (TEIS), Tennessee Early Childhood Training Alliance (TECTA), and the Data Analytics Project for the Tennessee Department of Education, and other externally funded projects. Since joining the ETSU faculty in 2007, she has sought out opportunities to improve early childhood education experiences for children and families. Along with colleagues Dr. David Wood and Ms. Lottie Ryans, Dr. Hale launched the EDI project in northeast Tennessee in 2019. The Early Development Instrument (EDI) is a questionnaire that is completed by kindergarten teachers to measure children’s school readiness. The EDI results were aggregated to various levels of complexity and scores were compared across geographic areas and demographic groups. These results have helped leaders in our community understand how children are development by connecting early childhood experiences to learning outcomes and future success. Dr. Hale is the author of the Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) grant which provides financial support to eligible ETSU student parents with the cost of childcare. Dr. Hale serves as the off-site coordinator for the Reach Out and Read program at ETSU Pediatrics, and as an advisory board member for Families Free, Inc., a 501(c)3 organization designed to build better communities through the transformation of vulnerable families, especially those affected by incarceration. Prior to completing a doctoral degree at Virginia Tech in 2005, Dr. Hale worked as a school psychologist in public schools in Roanoke, Virginia. She is currently a CO-PI of a federal funded research project investigating the efficacy of teleconsultation with parents and teachers of young children with behavioral issues in rural school districts in northeast Tennessee, southwest Virginia, and western North Carolina.  Dr. Hale is an alumnus of the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences at Virginia Tech and the School Psychology program at Radford University in Radford, Virginia.  Dr. Hale enjoys gardening and playing with her boxer, Reuben.

Curriculum Vitae