WREN Investigators
BETH GRAUE
Beth Graue, a former kindergarten teacher, is Sorenson Professor of Early Childhood Education in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction at the University of Wisconsin – Madison and the director of the Center for Research on Early Childhood Education at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research. Graue is the principal investigator on the WREN project. Graue developed the video library idea with WREN district partners and guided its production with the wonderful team of staffers below
ERIC GRODSKY
Eric Grodsky is Professor of Sociology and Educational Policy Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison as well as the co-director of the Madison Education Partnership.
KATHERINE MAGNUSON
Katherine Magnuson is the director of the Institute for Research on Poverty and Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Social Work.
Project Assistants
WREN Video Library Project staff include:
Fujiuju Chang is a doctoral student in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a project assistant of Center for Research on Early Childhood Education at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research. She works on reviewing literature about children’s play and analyzing videos and teachers’ interviews for the Play Video Library.
Jiyeon Lee is a doctoral student in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at University of Wisconsin –Madison and works at the Center for Research on Early Childhood Education (CRECE) as a project assistant. Prior to joining CRECE, she worked as an early childhood teacher and a supervisor for early childhood pre-service teachers. She joined the WREN play-based teaching project in 2018. In the play project, Jiyeon has been involved in the video and interview data collection, data analysis, play observation tool development, and play video library development. She analyzed, selected, and reviewed the videos for the Play Video Library.
Ju Lim is a doctoral student in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. She has taught in multiple early childhood education settings and supervised preservice teachers in an EC/ESL program. She received an M.A. from Teachers College, Columbia University in International Educational Development, and a B.S. from Ohio State University in Early and Middle Childhood Studies. Lim analyzed, selected, and edited play videos.
Kelly Quirk is an undergraduate student in the Early Childhood/ ESL teacher certification program. She previously worked at the UW-Child Development Lab as an assistant teacher and uses this experience to inform her work at CRECE as a project assistant. Quirk is interested in district-level policies and programs which support high-quality partnerships between families, schools, and the community.
Meredith Whye is a doctoral student in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Prior to UW, she taught in Kenya on a Fulbright Fellowship and taught early childhood education for Teach for America. Whye helped edit and select videos for the Play Video Library in addition to creating video descriptions.
Other Project Staff
Amanda Kruger is a research program manager at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research. She handles day-to-day activities of WREN. About WREN
David Marcou is a videographer and video editor at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research’s Technical Services. He shot and edited all the footage for the Play Video Library.