‘Bringing the University to the People’: Community Chairs Expand Early Childhood Research, Impact

At the Buffett Early Childhood Institute, the Community Chair roles extend beyond the traditional higher education responsibilities of teaching and research.

The Institute’s four Community Chairs, professors at the University of Nebraska campuses, help connect the university with the families, young children, college students, teachers, and other community members who make up Nebraska.

“The role of the Community Chair is to bring the university to the people,” said Julia Torquati, Community Chair in Infant and Child Mental Health, University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

A new Buffett Institute video highlights this important role and features interviews with the four current Community Chairs, plus campus and Institute leaders.

The Community Chairs are:

• Julia Torquati, Community Chair in Infant and Child Mental Health, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
• Debora Wisneski, John T. Langan Community Chair in Early Childhood Education, University of Nebraska at Omaha
• Paula Thompson, Cille and Ron Williams Community Chair for Early Childhood Education, University of Nebraska at Kearney
• Philip Lai, Cille and Ron Williams Community Chair for Early Childhood Education, UNK 

Community Chairs collaborate with the Buffett Institute to deepen outreach and engagement across Nebraska and nationwide. Each has their own area of expertise, including infant mental health, community-engaged research, play-based learning, early childhood workforce preparation, and more. 

“What we need at our universities is for us to be thinking about how to connect the research to the policy in order to improve the practices that happen on behalf of young children, families, communities, and schools,” said Walter Gilliam, the executive director of the Buffett Institute. “And that’s what our Community Chairs do.”

Wisneski has served as a Community Chair since 2013. She’s worked on play-based projects like Omaha Urban Thinkscapes, the redesign of infant and toddler playscapes with Educare, and the creation of the UNO PLAY Lab.

“My involvement with the Institute has really opened up the opportunities for me to engage in the early childhood community that I would not have been able to do on my own,” she said.

Thompson and Lai are the newest chairs, appointed in 2025.

Thompson’s research interests include early childhood workforce preparation and well-being, with a focus on professionals serving rural communities.

Lai conducts research on social development, executive function, and cognitive development in individuals with autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders.

Both have been heavily involved with efforts to grow Nebraska’s early childhood workforce in rural areas. Buffett Institute data shows Nebraska needs more than 17,000 child care spots. Ten counties, all rural, have zero licensed child care providers.

“We know that 4.2 million children nationwide lack affordable child care, and this is even more pronounced in rural areas,” Lai said. “If parents can’t find child care, they’re not working.”

Thompson has partnered with the Institute’s Applied Research team to study burnout among Head Start providers and improve early literacy in babies and toddlers using innovative technology.

“The knowledge and expertise that the Buffett Institute employees bring to the table, it is just a game changer,” she said. 

Torquati is an expert in infant mental health and nature-based learning environments. She is currently a principal investigator on the RESPECT Across Nebraska project, an early childhood workforce preparation and certification initiative that includes the Institute, NU campuses, community colleges, state agencies, and other partners.

“We don’t sit in our offices and decide what communities need or what is important to them,” she said. “And that’s the importance of being out there, doing focus groups, listening to, building relationships with community members to really understand what’s happening and what their ideas are for how to solve problems.”

Erin Duffy is the managing editor at the Buffett Early Childhood Institute at the University of Nebraska and writes about early childhood issues that affect children, families, educators, and communities. Previously, she spent more than a decade covering education stories and more for daily newspapers.