Michelle Kiefer
- Director
Education:
Credential in Effective College Instruction, Association of College and University Educators
Master's Degree- Early Childhood Education, California State University, Sacramento
Bachelor's Degree- Liberal Studies with a minor in Family and Consumer Sciences, California State University, Sacramento
Biography:
Michelle Kiefer serves as Director of The Piper Center for Family Studies and Child Development at Baylor University as well as Lecturer for Child and Family Studies. Her thesis, completed in Western Australia, focused on international home literacy environments. She also became a certified Reading Recovery teacher there.
After living in Australia, Michelle worked in Idaho as a manager for a home-based Early Head Start program and volunteer educator for Baby Steps of Idaho before moving to California, where she taught early education to community college students and managed child development programs for the leading community college in the capital region. Michelle encourages outdoor classrooms and outdoor spaces for staff, leading design committees in two states and supporting implementation through Nature Explore.
Today, Michelle is on the board of First3Years, Texas' Infant Mental Health Association. She is a long-standing member of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). She is also a member of the National Coalition of Campus Children’s Centers and an outspoken advocate for laboratory early education centers. Michelle works with Baylor faculty on environmental impacts on development, with particular emphasis on media use in infants and toddlers.
