Our Senior Vice President of Education, Dr. Judy Brown, recently had the honor of being invited to serve on the National Advisory Committee for Early Learning in Museums in Washington, DC. Dr. Brown currently leads the Museum’s research and development project Early Childhood Hands-On Science (ECHOS). A collaboration with the University of Miami’s College of Arts and Sciences, the project is funded by the US Department of Education’s Institute of Education Science. ECHOS is a pre-school science early intervention program for Head Start children, and a work force development program for Head Start teachers and teacher assistants.  ECHOS brings the Museum’s hands-on learning approach into preschool community centers across Miami-Dade County.  The project combines two of Judy’s passions and areas of expertise: informal museum education and early childhood learning. She traveled to Washington to join other leading museum educators and researchers on the advisory committee, in order to share our research as well as to help design an upcoming early childhood space in the American History Museum.  Judy will continue to advise the Smithsonian on the upcoming National Symposium on Early Learning in Museums. If you’ve ever wondered who gets to be a part of guiding the national conversation on early learning, we are doing pioneering work right here at our Museum.