Community Chairs
The community chairs reflect the strengths of each University of Nebraska campus related to early learning and development. In addition to fulfilling the traditional faculty roles of teaching, research, and service, community chairs provide campus leadership and are responsive to the local community.
Julia Torquati
Community Chair in Infant and Child Mental Health, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Torquati is a professor in the Department of Child, Youth and Family Studies in the College of Education and Human Sciences at UNL. As the inaugural recipient of the Community Chair in Infant and Child Mental Health, she contributes expertise in the areas of infant and child mental health and development of children's social skills and regulation, and she helps educate families and other care providers to support mental and emotional development in young children.
Torquati serves as the principal investigator of RESPECT Across Nebraska, a collaboration among multiple institutions and communities dedicated to strengthening the state’s early childhood workforce.
Debora Wisneski
John T. Langan Community Chair in Early Childhood Education, University of Nebraska at Omaha
Wisneski is a professor in teacher education in the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences at UNO. Her research examines how educators and communities can support children’s learning through play. Wisneski leads a team of educators and researchers at UNO in early childhood teacher preparation and play projects.
Projects include Omaha Urban Thinkscapes, the redesign of infant/toddler playscapes with Educare, RDG and BCI Burke playgrounds, the creation of the UNO PLAY Lab, and the Playful Learning and Community Engagement (PLACE) faculty group. She is the past president of Childhood Education International, The Association for the Study of Play, and Education Rights Counsel. Watch her talk at TEDxMiamiUniversity.
Paula Thompson
Cille and Ron Williams Community Chair for Early Childhood Education, University of Nebraska at Kearney
Paula Thompson is an associate professor in the Department of Teacher Education at UNK.
Thompson’s research interests include early childhood workforce preparation and well-being, with a focus on professionals serving rural communities. She also studies family engagement, early STEM implementation, child development, family advocacy, and special education.
Philip Lai
Cille and Ron Williams Community Chair for Early Childhood Education, University of Nebraska at Kearney
Lai is an associate professor in the Department of Communication Disorders at UNK. He conducts research on social development, executive function, and cognitive development in individuals with autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders, including verbal and nonverbal communication during social interactions in various populations.
He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in preschool language disorders, typical language development, multiculturalism, neurological foundations, and autism.
Past Community Chairs
Kathleen Gallagher
Cille and Ron Williams Community Chair for Early Childhood Education, UNK, 2016–17
David Dzewaltowski
Community Chair in Activity, Nutrition, and Obesity Prevention, UNMC, 2018–21
Susan Catapano
Cille and Ron Williams Community Chair for Early Childhood Education, UNK, 2019–20
Marisa Macy
Cille and Ron Williams Community Chair for Early Childhood Education, UNK, 2022–24
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