Judith J.  Carta, Ph.D.

Dr. Judith Carta is currently a Senior Scientist at the University of Kansas and Director of Early Childhood Research at the Juniper Gardens Children’s Project, a national award-winning community-based research center that is part of the University of Kansas’ Life-Span Institute. She holds courtesy professor positions with the University’s Departments of Special Education and Human Development.

Dr. Carta has conducted research for the past 20 years examining the impact of environmental risks associated with poverty on the development of young children. During this time, her work has focused on describing the effects of risk and protective factors on children’s outcomes, developing and validating educational interventions to promote children’s transitions from preschool to the primary grades, and designing interventions to foster the language development of young children with developmental delays.

Dr. Carta is currently an investigator on the National Evaluation of Early Head Start, a comprehensive early intervention program for children from age birth to three years and their families living in poverty. She also is a principal investigator on the Early Childhood Research Institute for Measuring Growth and Development, a three-university consortium developing new tools for monitoring young children’s progress toward socially validated outcomes. Besides conducting research, Dr. Carta conducts Project SLIDE--a program of training for early childhood professionals related to teaching strategies to promote children’s skills for making successful transitions into primary grades. SLIDE is being used by preschool and early elementary teachers throughout the United States and Australia. She is currently the editor of Topics in Early Childhood Special Education.