Walter S. Gilliam, PhD

Dr. Gilliam's research involves early childhood education and intervention policy analysis (specifically how policies translate into effective services), ways to improve the quality of prekindergarten and child care services, and the impact of early childhood education programs on children's school readiness. His scholarly writing addresses early childhood care and education programs, school readiness, and developmental assessment of young children. Dr. Gilliam has led national analyses of state-funded prekindergarten policies and mandates, how prekindergarten programs are being implemented across the range of policy contexts, and the effectiveness of these programs at improving school readiness and educational achievement, as well as experimental and quasi-experimental studies on the effectiveness of various methods to improve early education quality, as well as issues of COVID-19 transmission, vaccination, and health and safety promotion in early childhood settings.

Dr. Gilliam directs The Edward Zigler Center in Child Development and Social Policy. Its mission is to create and disseminate research that can be used to inform legislative and other policy efforts on behalf of children and families and to train future generations working at the intersect of research and policy development. Dr. Gilliam actively provides consultation to state and federal decision-makers, and his comments on early education are sought frequently by national and international news reporters.

Additionally, Dr. Gilliam provides clinical supervision in the early childhood section of the Child Study Center (providing developmental evaluations of children birth to 5-years old) and in the Newborn Follow-up Clinic, for premature and low birth weight infants. Dr. Gilliam holds a joint appointment with the Psychology Department at Yale University.

Dr. Gilliam leads the Yale Children and Adults Research in Early Education Study Team (Yale CARES), an interdisciplinary team of researchers studying COVID-19 transmission mitigation, vaccination, and health and mental health supports in early childhood settings. The team consists of experts in young child development and mental health, epidemiology, vaccinology, pediatric infectious disease control, economics, policy, and early childhood systems.

Dr. Gilliam was PI on the National Prekindergarten Study, the first study to examine the relationship between state-level early education legislation and policy and classroom-level implementation.

Dr. Gilliam has conducting a series of statewide random-controlled trials, examining the effectiveness of mental health consultation infused into child care and early education systems.

A series of studies examining preschool expulsion rates and practices are currently underway.