Planning and Administering Early Childhood Programs

CELIA A. DECKER has been actively involved in early childhood education for over 30 years. She is currently serving a dual appointment in the Department of Education and Family and Consumer Sciences at Northwestern State University as professor of early childhood education. She is the program coordinator of graduate studies in early childhood education and teaches courses in early childhood education, child development, and dynamics of family relations.

In addition to co-authoring this text, she has published a secondary school/junior college text, Children: The Early Years, along with the teaching supplements. She has presented papers at national, regional, and state annual meetings of professional associations such as the National Association for the Education of Young Children, Southern Early Childhood Association, and the Association for Childhood Education International. She does extensive consulting work for Head Start, Even Start, and local school systems.

During her years of teaching as a kindergarten teacher in an inner-city school system and as a college professor, she has received many honors. Dr. Decker has been named to the Who's Who in Child Development Professionals, Who's Who in Personalities of the South, Who's Who in American Women, and the World's Who's Who in Education. In 1994 she was selected as the Outstanding Professor at Northwestern State University. She and her husband are the parents of twin sons in graduate school and a daughter who graduated from college in the spring of 2000.

After graduating from Hutchinson Junior College in Hutchinson, Kansas, JOHN DECKER graduated from Missouri Valley College in Marshall, Missouri, with a BS in Human Relations. Following 2 years of military service, he served as a district scout executive for Kau Council, BSA, Kansas City, Kansas. He obtained a teaching certificate from the University of Kansas and taught in two inner-city elementary schools in a large midwestern city. While completing the requirements for his masters and doctoral degrees in Educational Administration, he continued his teaching career at the elementary and college levels, respectively.

Since living in Louisiana, he has taught college classes as an assistant professor of education and has taught elementary school and high school classes in the public schools. He continues to take graduate courses and teaches college courses in the summer sessions as an adjunct professor as needed. He belongs to several organizations in which he gives workshops and speeches. Dr. Decker has been recognized for his 30-year membership in Phi Delta Kappa.