For twenty years I've helped early childhood programs grow into something better — using the classrooms, staff, and land a community already has. No new construction. No new budget line. Just a better way to grow what's already there.
Hamilton County's own Childcare Action Dashboard lays out the shortage in plain numbers. This is the starting line for any conversation about what comes next.
Most conversations about childcare capacity land on one of two levers. Both are slow, and neither is guaranteed to raise quality where it's needed most.
Since founding Play Scientist in 2016, I've delivered this transformation in communities as different from each other as they are from Hamilton County — proof the model bends to fit the place, not the other way around.
Converted a conventional program into a nature-based, inquiry-driven model in a community with limited educational infrastructure.
Delivered the same pedagogical foundation in a dense urban setting — proof it adapts across geography and demographics.
Extended the model into another distinct regional and economic context.
Delivered Tier 3 coaching to 350+ licensed programs and 500+ coaching visits through Indiana's Paths to QUALITY™ system.
This isn't just a philosophy I love. It's a case with real research behind it — and real training rooms full of educators putting it into practice.
Nobel laureate James Heckman's research finds that high-quality early childhood programs return roughly seven to thirteen dollars for every dollar invested, through stronger education, health, and employment outcomes down the line.
The Reggio Emilia approach has been linked to long-term gains in employment, social-emotional skills, high school graduation, and health — without the specialized materials and proprietary teacher-training costs that make comparable models expensive to access.
Two decades of field research from NC State's Natural Learning Initiative treats naturalized outdoor learning environments as low-cost, high-impact upgrades to a center's existing site — not new capital projects.
I grew up in rural northern Illinois, where fields and forests fueled my curiosity and shaped my teaching. For more than ten years, I taught over 400 children and families in a bilingual early-childhood classroom, blending inquiry-based play, Reggio Emilia, and STEAM concepts inspired by nature. I also trained colleagues so more students could access high-quality learning like it.
In 2016, I became a Play Scientist — working with schools, districts, and nonprofits nationwide to design nature-based curricula, lead workshops, and consult on landscape projects, from a small Arizona town to downtown Chattanooga to San Antonio.
Most recently, at SPARK Learning Lab, I expanded this work by coaching early childhood educators across Indiana, supporting them in building playful, inquiry-driven, developmentally appropriate classrooms — 350+ programs and 500+ coaching visits statewide.
My mission is simple: to make high-quality, nature-inspired learning accessible to every child, in every community — without asking that community to wait on a building that may never get built.
I'd love to walk through your local data — the way I just did with Hamilton County's — and talk through what a pilot could look like where you are.
