Pia Britto, PhD

Pia Rebello Britto, Ph.D. is an Associate Research Scientist at the Yale Child Study Center, faculty at the Zigler Center for Social Policy and Lecturer at the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale University. She is known internationally for her work in the areas of early childhood policy development and analysis and program evaluation. She is presently working with over 20 countries on developing integrated systems for early childhood using a standards approach. In addition she is also working with several individual counties on formulating national policies for the well-being of young children. Dr. Britto has been involved in several early intervention program evaluations in Africa and Asia and most recently working on a 6 country evaluation of an innovative approach to improve school readiness. Dr. Britto is known nationally for her scientific work on young children's early literacy development and more recently on understanding issues of identity development of Muslim and Arab children growing up in the United States. Dr. Britto obtained her doctoral degree in developmental psychology from Teachers College, Columbia University. She is the recipient of several national and international grants and awards in recognition for her work and has published numerous books, articles, chapters and reports and has presented extensively at conferences, meetings and work shops (academic and non-academic) both nationally and abroad.Dr. Rebello Britto is currently working, with Sharon Lynn Kagan and a UNICEF team, in over 15 countries on the development of national standards and indicators for monitoring child development outcomes. She is also working with national governments to formulate their early childhood policies and on evaluating early intervention programs in several countries. Domestically, Dr. Rebello Britto is conducting research to understand the experience of growing up Muslim in the United States and the influence of the present socio-political context on young Muslim children’s identity development.