TA lifetime of achievement that spans over 40 years, Jennifer Birckmayer has dedicated her professional life to the health and education of New York’s youngest children.Incredibly, her interest in early childhood education began at the young age of thirteen when she and a friend started their own neighborhood playgroup.She went on to attend Vassar College where she majored in Child Study and completed her Master’s Degree at Cornell University in Child Development and Family Relationships.Ms. Birckmayer was a teacher and then a director of the Cornell Nursery School while also supervising student teachers and teaching in the department of child development and family studies.She served as Senior Extension Associate at Cornell for 23 years. After retiring from Cornell, Ms. Birckmayer continued to work within the early childhood field as a consultant and trainer and a frequent panelist on videoconferences for SUNY Training Strategies Group.During the past forty years she has worked directly with children, staff and parents in a variety of early childhood settings, including Head Start, pre-kindergarten, migrant programs and family and group child care.She has been a consultant and trainer for the NYS Departments of Education, Social Services, Health, Mental Health and Agriculture and Markets.Among her most popular publications are: Discipline is not a Dirty Word, Teens as Parents of Babies and Toddlers (with Mabb, Westendorf and Wilson), and Book Start (with Westendorf).