Are you ever curious about what exactly the NAGC Board of Directors does? A majority of the board’s activity involves governance, establishing priorities for the organization, and ensuring fiscal health. But that’s not all we do. The board is also a catalyst of activity in the form of special initiatives, task forces, and working groups that have more tangible results. In the process, we often reach out to other members from all corners of the organization to maximize involvement and support leadership development. Here’s a summary of some of the past, recent, and upcoming activities that the board initiated.  

NAGC Colloquia 

Dream Unencumbered follow-up conversation. NAGC's first colloquium funded under the James J. Gallagher Memorial Fund occurred in May 2023. The Dream Unencumbered colloquium engaged an expanded group of stakeholders in a conversation about equity for culturally, linguistically, and economically diverse gifted students. As a follow-up, we will gather with some of our new partners and a few additional NAGC leaders to have a strategic conversation around the amplified need for expanded access and opportunity for advanced learning in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision to end affirmative action in college admissions. Now more than ever, we must advocate for equal access to advanced learning opportunities for students in every neighborhood and demographic so they can better compete for admissions in selective colleges.

Dream Unencumbered Planning Committee: Shelagh Gallagher, Tarek Grantham (Co-chairs), Jeffrey Blount, Shelli Frasier Trotman Scott, Steve Fredericks, Sally Krisel, April Wells, John Segota 

Colloquium on Educator Preparation. A related initiative stems from the James J. Gallagher Fund's mission to hold interdisciplinary colloquia around three seminal issues in the field. These colloquia are designed for the NAGC board to gather with educators, advocates, and policymakers to share information and learn new perspectives. Planning is underway for the second colloquia, focusing on Educator Preparation.  The tentative date for this event is May 2025.  Be on the lookout for more information and planning proceeds!

Educator Preparation Colloquium Planning Committee (to date): Shelagh Gallagher (Chair), Christine Deitz, Mark Hess, Lauri Kirsch, Linda Robinson, Tamra Stambaugh, Mark Schwingle, Dornswalo Wilkins-McCorey

Universal Educator Preparation in Gifted Education. At the board's request, Dr. Cindy Gilson (UNC Charlotte) gathered a team of writers to create a new framing paper making the case that all educators should have a background in gifted education. You can find that framing paper here. The next steps for this initiative are to have the Public Policy and Advocacy Committee create a shorter policy brief based on the framing paper, to seek endorsement for the paper from other educational organizations, and to hold leadership forums to discuss how to use the paper and policy position to create positive change.

Framing Paper Authors: Cindy Gilson (Lead Author), Shelagh Gallagher, Nielson Pereira, LaToya O. Dash, Thomas W. Connors, Catherine Little

Task Forces and Working Groups

Early Childhood Gifted Education Task Force. President-elect Catherine Little and Treasurer Nancy Hertzog are leading a task force investigating the points of overlap and points of tension between the fields of gifted education and early childhood education. Together, this group will recommend directions for NAGC to pursue to advance the needs of PreK-grade 2 children with advanced ability. 

Early Childhood Task Force: Nancy Hertzog, Catherine Little (Co-chairs), Kelly Kearney, Kisha McCray, Kimberly Myles, Megan Parker Peters, Alicia Schroeder-Schock, Aimee Sulit, Jennifer Williams

Social and Emotional Learning Working Group. Under the leadership of Board members Christine Deitz and Dornswalo Wilkins-McCorey, a group of professionals with backgrounds in counseling, educational psychology, and research gathered to create recommendations for how NAGC could augment its activity related to gifted and talented students' social and emotional needs. That group concluded its work in May, and discussions are now underway on how to actualize that group's recommendations.

Social and Emotional Learning Working Group: Christine Deitz and Dornswalo Wilkins-McCorey (Co-Chairs), Edward Amend, Tracy Cross, Austina De Bonte, Michael Demczyk, Jamie MacDougall, Megan Parker Peters, Anne Rinn, Yvette Robinson, Lisa Van Gemert, Chris Wells

Awards Program Task Force. NAGC offers a large array of awards, including the new Excelencia Latina award, which will be celebrated for the first time at the upcoming NAGC convention in Seattle. The number of awards has gradually expanded over time, which provides more opportunities for recognizing excellence. However, the infrastructure that supports the awards program has remained unchanged as the volume of awards has increased. The board appointed Tyler Clark to head a task force to look at the infrastructure for awards across the organization and address key questions regarding the organization, infrastructure, administration, and different categories of NAGC’s awards.

Awards Program Task Force: Tyler Clark (Chair), Christine Briggs, Joy Lawson Davis, Cappie Dobyns, Chandra Floyd, Roxane Hagedorn, Sarah Jackson, Celeste Sodergren

Development Working Group. Just about everything NAGC does requires money, and the length of our reach grows as our financial resources grow. Before the end of her Presidency, past president Lauri Kirsch asked the board to appoint a Development Working Group to develop a plan to build our development activity. Under the leadership of (past) board member Jen Stancil and current board member Dante Dixson, the group presented a series of recommendations on how NAGC might expand its fundraising and development activities. The Board will be evaluating the recommendations of the working group and considering possible next steps this fall.

Development Working Group: Dante Dixson, Jen Stancil (Co-Chairs), Laura Beltchenko, Tyler Clark, Natalie Jansorn, Lauri Kirsch, Catherine Little

It’s an honor and a pleasure to work with the members of the NAGC board, who share a collaborative spirit and a willingness to engage in deliberation, debate, and decision-making with the best interest of the organization in mind. Welcome back for another year Dante Dixson, Shelli Frasier Trotman-Scott, Nancy Hertzog, Catherine Little, Lauri Kirsch, Betsy McCoach, Darryl Peterkin, Kristie Spiers-Neumeister, Antonia Szymanski, April Wells, and Dornswalo Wilkins-McCorey.  

And welcome incoming elected board members Mark Hess, Jen Madsen, Ashley Phelps, and Karen Rambo-Hernandez!  Each new member is already hard at work and making meaningful contributions as we plan for the coming year. Finally, a heartfelt thank you to outgoing board members Christine Deitz, Tamra Stambaugh, Tracy Inman, Jen Stancil, and Michelle Swain. We will miss you and appreciate the time you’ve devoted to the leadership of NAGC!

I hope to see you all in Seattle in a few weeks--
Shelagh A. Gallagher
President, NAGC

Early childhood education significantly influences children’s later achievement and well-being. In the US, recent trends have shown increased attention and resources directed toward universal preschool and access to high quality early childhood experiences. NAGC should be a center of expertise in early childhood gifted education and should promote equitable opportunities and access to rich contexts for talent development. Such support includes recognizing early childhood as an important phase of development that differs from other periods in children’s school years. This requires families and educators to focus on nurturing potential broadly within that developmental context as well as addressing the needs of children with demonstrated advanced abilities. Many gifted programs currently do not serve children younger than second or third grade, and those that do often rely on recommendations and policies that show limited attention to the developmental differences in younger children. At the same time, many general early childhood educators have limited background knowledge or resources for addressing advanced learning needs in young children.

NAGC is committed to ensuring that educators and families have support to nurture the talents of all young children. In recognition of this critical need, the NAGC Board of Directors has approved a task force to focus on early childhood gifted education. The Early Childhood Task Force, co-chaired by Nancy Hertzog and Catherine Little, will address questions pertaining to areas of alignment and points of tension between the gifted education and early childhood fields, with attention to preschool and primary education. The task force will explore the needs of educators and caregivers who support advanced ability and talent development and will facilitate access to information for describing effective practices for early childhood gifted education.

We anticipate that the task force will engage in a variety of information-seeking and synthesis activities, including seeking input from members about current practices and experiences with this young population of learners. We expect to collaborate with individuals and organizations in the field of early childhood around areas of alignment and needs for further exploration, including questions of equitable access and services for diverse populations. The task force will also examine implications of current policies related to early childhood identification and services.

We are looking for individuals interested in participating on the task force and providing diverse perspectives to illuminate issues and opportunities related to aligning early childhood and gifted education. If you are interested in potentially serving on the task force or contributing to task force efforts, please click here to complete a brief application.