Kristie Kauerz

Kristie Kauerz is program director for PreK–3rd Education at Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE). Kauerz specializes in early care and education and elementary school reform, comprehensive early childhood system building, and the linkages between policy, research, and practice. Her experience includes working in two different gubernatorial administrations in Colorado (Governor Bill Ritter, Jr., and Governor Roy Romer); working at the national level—across states—as program director for early learning at Education Commission of the States; and working in academia at the National Center for Children and Families (Teachers College) and at the Center for Human Investment Policy (University of Colorado–Denver). She has authored or co-authored numerous articles, book chapters, and reports on topics ranging from state kindergarten policies to early childhood governance to P–3 policy alignment. She co-authored Washington State’s Early Learning and Development Benchmarks and a book on improving the early care and education teaching workforce. Kauerz earned her B.A. in political science from Colorado College, her M.A. in international development from American University, and her Ed.D. in early childhood policy from Teachers College, Columbia University.