Buffett Early Childhood Institute

10/22/2025

We gathered at the University of Nebraska at Kearney last week to celebrate Philip Lai and Paula Thompson, the Buffett Institute's new community chairs. These UNK professors are already early childhood leaders in Nebraska, but with the community chair appointment, they will have even more opportunities to mentor students, collaborate with the Institute, and support quality child care in urban and rural communities.

"These are not honorary titles," said UNK Chancellor Neal Schnoor. "They represent real work, real innovation, and real connection."

Meet all four of our community chairs: https://buffettinstitute.nebraska.edu/about-us/community-chairs

UNK College of Education University of Nebraska Kearney Department of Communication Disorders University of Nebraska System

10/21/2025

Congratulations to Principal Stevens and Westbrook Elementary - District 66! Westbrook is one of our School as Hub partners under the Superintendents’ Early Childhood Plan, and they are finding great ways to connect with children and families.

Congratulations to Westbrook Elementary’s Brian Stevens for being named a Lozier Lights Outstanding Principal!
As part of the award, the Lozier Foundation will donate $25,000 to Westbrook.
The awards ceremony will be Thursday, Oct. 30 at the Kiewit Luminarium.

10/20/2025

The Nebraska Academy for Early Childhood Research (NAECR) is turning 10! Watch the Buffett Institute's Alexandra Daro, alongside other Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools partners, describe this important research initiative.

10/19/2025

It's We Care for Kids Week in Nebraska! From now til Saturday, Oct. 25, join the celebration connecting partners and community leaders to families and resources in their community with the goal of building support for quality early childhood education and early childhood educators. This is a week to inform, motivate, and engage Nebraskans from every corner of the state.

Find ways you can participate here: https://nebraskacaresforkids.org/events/we-care-for-kids-week/

10/17/2025

This week, we spent a fun morning visiting an early childhood STEM class at UNO College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences. Instructor Melany Spiehs and Hannah Rennard-Ganley from Keep Omaha Beautiful, Inc. worked with education students to plan and implement nature-based lessons. (Who else has fond memories of making a pinecone bird feeder? 🖐️ )

Videographer Chris VanKat shot video for an upcoming project highlighting the years of partnership between the Institute and the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Stay tuned for more!

10/16/2025

In Nebraska, Head Start reaches over 5,500 young children and pregnant women annually and employs nearly 2,300 workers. In some rural areas across the country, Head Start is one of the few child care programs available to families. During Head Start Awareness Month, let's recognize this critical resource!

10/14/2025

We’re proud to see the groundbreaking research of Kazi Albab Hussain, a 2022–23 Buffett Institute Graduate Scholar and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, featured in the Washington Post!

Hussain and UNL scientists found that heating baby food in plastic jars and tubs can release billions of nanoplastics, sounding alarms about our everyday exposure to tiny plastic particles.

Since 2016, the Buffett Institute has invested more than $700,000 through the Graduate Scholars program to support Ph.D. students from the University of Nebraska System who are conducting ambitious early childhood research like this.

The biggest sources of microplastics have one thing in common: Heat.

10/13/2025

What an amazing accomplishment: The Ruth Staples Child Development Laboratory at University of Nebraska-Lincoln just celebrated 100 years of students, staff, and families learning together! We were happy to attend an open house last week to mark the occasion.

Stay tuned for an upcoming story on our Early Years Matter blog about this innovative early education program, one of the first laboratory schools at a university west of the Mississippi River.

10/11/2025

Elementary school principals from Bellevue Public Schools, DC West Community Schools, Millard Public Schools, Omaha Public Schools, Ralston Public Schools, and Westside Community Schools - District 66 recently visited the Buffett Institute for a Community of Practice meeting.

They are leading by example, alongside their colleagues across school districts, by continuing to learn how to implement the School as Hub approach across the birth through elementary years. Institute staff facilitating this include Cris Lopez Anderson and Tonya Jolley.

Learn more about how we work directly with schools to strengthen early learning and leadership coaching: https://buffettinstitute.nebraska.edu/schools

Learning Community of Douglas and Sarpy Counties

10/10/2025

What does intentional teaching look like in practice? We asked the Buffett Institute's Amy Schmidtke, the editor of The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)'s new book, “The Intentional Teacher: Choosing the Best Strategies for Young Children’s Learning, Third Edition."

"It looks like a teacher who is deeply attuned to children’s interests and developmental needs, and who purposefully weaves together exploration, curiosity, and rich content learning," she said.

Learn how Schmidtke updated this valued teacher resource in our new blog post: https://buffettinstitute.nebraska.edu/blog/2025/09/behind-the-book-amy-schmidtke-on-editing-the-intentional-teacher-and-the-power-of-joyful-learning

10/09/2025

We all know it's not easy to get kids to eat their veggies. 🥦 In a recent paper published in the Journal of Nutritional Science, Saima Hasnin, a 2021-22 Buffett Institute Graduate Scholar who earned her Ph.D. from UNL Child, Youth and Family Studies, studied what in-home child care providers think about preparing and serving vegetables to young children. Through the Graduate Scholars program, the Institute provided funding for her research project. She's now an assistant professor at the Division of Nutritional Sciences at University of Illinois.

Among the findings of Hasnin and her co-authors:
• Providers worry about wasting food kids won't eat
• They don't have enough time to prepare and serve healthy meals while also caring for children
• They would appreciate more family education on healthy eating
• Some believe the standards are too strict for the federal food reimbursement program

Read the full article: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-nutritional-science/article/family-child-care-home-providers-perceived-difficulty-in-serving-vegetables-to-children-findings-from-a-multimethod-study/4D0346AF82D91C3DA1E93BCDD35D128F

10/08/2025

Last month’s Native Children’s Research Exchange (NCRE) Conference welcomed more than 100 scholars and researchers to the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. The biennial conference is led by Michelle Sarche, a Buffett Institute professor, and Nancy Whitesell, a professor in the Centers for American Indian and Alaska Native Health at CU Anschutz.

Through shared research and mentorship opportunities, the event highlighted early childhood issues, the impact of substance use on development, and community-driven solutions for Native children and families.

Support was provided by the Tribal Early Childhood Research Center, The National Institute on Drug Abuse - NIDA, the Bezos Family Foundation, the Indigenous Early Learning Initiative, the Clyfford Still Museum, and Lakeshore Learning.

Read more: https://buffettinstitute.nebraska.edu/news-and-events/news/2025/10/more-than-100-scholars-researchers-gather-at-native-childrens-research-exchange-conference