Gina Barclay-McLaughlin, Ph.D.

Biography

In 1965, following completion of her undergraduate studies, Gina Barclay-McLaughlin was employed during the summer with the first wave of Head Start programs. Over the years, she has worked with Head Start programs on a local, regional, and national level in a range of positions. Dr. Barclay-McLaughlin’s Head Start experiences include teacher assistant, head teacher, center director, central office coordinator and administrator (for the City of Chicago and Cook County), regional project director for Head Start contractors in Region IV and V, and national consultant and researcher. She was selected to serve as a National Head Start Fellow with the 1998-99 Class and now serves as a member of the Commission for the National Head Start Fellowship program.

Dr. Barclay-McLaughlin is the founding director of the Beethoven Project, a pioneer and research demonstration model developed during the mid-eighties and predecessor of the Comprehensive Child Development Programs, Early Head Start, and numerous State and local early intervention programs across the country and abroad. The Beethoven Project offered comprehensive services to children (0-5) and support for their families. Services were developed to serve families of the Robert Taylor Homes community in Chicago—the location of the country’s largest public housing development and one of the most challenging. Additionally, Dr. Barclay-McLaughlin has served as elementary school teacher (K-6), educator and researcher in higher education at The University of Michigan, The University of Chicago, and currently The University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Over the past ten years, she has been involved with research (i.e., evaluation design, instrument development, research data management and control) that combines the contributions of qualitative and quantitative work. She is a member of the Technical Work Group and the fatherhood committee for the Early Head Start National Research and Evaluation Project. She has a strong commitment to research and program services that effectively address the needs of diversity groups using diverse and integrated methodologies for greater depth in understanding poverty and providing effective services to young children and their families.

Dr. Barclay-McLaughlin is a graduate of Southern Illinois University where she earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and a master’s degree in educational psychology. She earned a Ph.D. in 1995 from the University of Michigan in the Combined Program of Education and Psychology with a concentration in early intervention and developmental psychology.  She has also studied in Universities and Institutes in Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Costa Rica with a concentration on cross cultural studies in childrearing and child development, emergent literacy and bilingual education, and the dynamics of race and class and their influence on child development and education. Dr. Barclay-McLaughlin is a member of the Governing Board and consulting editor for the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). She is the recipient of numerous awards for her scholarship and service.

Contact Information

Dr. Gina Barclay-McLaughlin
Associate Professor
Urban Multicultural/Teacher Education

A415 Jane and David Bailey Education Complex
1126 Volunteer Boulevard
Knoxville, Tennessee
37996-3442

Phone: 865-974-0443
Fax: 865-974-8718
gmclaugh@utk.edu

Contact CEHHS

335 Claxton Complex 1122 Volunteer Boulevard
Knoxville, Tennessee 37996

Phone: 865-974-2201
Fax: 865-974-8718