23rd Annual Early Years Conference

Keynote speakers

Friday - Julie Kurtz

Being a Brain Architect: Helping Children Reduce Stress and Reach Their Optimal Zone of Resilience
Early childhood educators are true brain architects. From birth to age 6, children build more than one million new neural connections every second — more than at any other stage of life. Your daily interactions shape this architecture in powerful ways, supporting either healing and resilience or stress and dysregulation.  In this keynote, participants will explore what it means to be a brain architect and how reframing challenging behavior as communication opens new pathways for connection, compassion, and growth. Learn how to strengthen children’s resilience by understanding their stress responses and supporting their developing brains with intention and care. 

Julie Kurtz is an author and international speaker consulting and training on trauma and resilience. Julie is the Founder and CEO for the

Center for Optimal Brain Integration® where they aspire to give every child and adult a voice who has experienced toxic or traumatic stress.
 
She is a co-author of: 

• Trauma-Informed Practices for Early Childhood Educators: Relationship-Based Approaches that Support Healing and Build Resilience in Young Children
• Culturally Responsive Self-Care Practices for Early Childhood Educators
• Trauma Informed Practices for Early Childhood Leaders: Creating and Sustaining Healing and Engaged Organizations
• Trauma-Responsive Family Engagement in Early Childhood: Practices for Equity and Resilience
• Supporting Young Children to Cope, Build Resilience and Heal from Trauma through Play: A Practical Guide for Early Childhood Educators
• Reducing Stress in Schools: Restoring Connection and Community (Harvard Education Press)

 Author of the award winning children’s books:

• Understanding My Brain: Becoming Human(E)! (Ages 4-10)

 Her greatest joy is being a grandma to her beloved grandbaby Callen Wayne.
 

Saturday - Dr. Nermeen Dashoush

Teaching Tomorrow’s Problem-Solvers: Building Thinking Skills in the Early Years 
Every breakthrough, big or small, begins with the same spark: the ability to solve a problem. Today’s children are tomorrow’s innovators, community leaders, and changemakers, and the skills they practice now will shape the world they inherit. In this keynote, we will explore how early learning experiences — whether through play, storytelling, or everyday routines — can nurture powerful problem-solving habits of mind. We will also look at how computational thinking skills, such as recognizing patterns, breaking challenges into smaller steps, and trying new strategies when the first one does not work, can be fostered in joyful, age-appropriate ways. Together, we will imagine what is possible when every child has the tools to think with curiosity, resilience, and creativity. 

Dr. Nermeen Dashoush is a clinical associate professor of early childhood education and the program director for learning design and technology at Boston University, where she teaches courses in teacher education, child development, STEM education, and family and community engagement. She began her career as a classroom teacher and has since dedicated her work to improving access to high-quality learning experiences for young children. 

As chief academic officer and a founding educator of MarcoPolo Learning, Dr. Dashoush has co-created innovative digital platforms that provide high-quality resources designed to support children and the educators and caregivers they interact with. She is also a lead advisor for PBS KIDS content and a two-time Emmy-nominated educator and content creator, recognized for her contributions to children’s educational media that promote curiosity and meaningful learning experiences. 

Dr. Dashoush has served as a reviewer for the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), authored the National Science Teaching Association’s (NSTA) position statement on science learning for young children, and received multiple research grants, including from the NSF and the Caplan Foundation, to advance understanding of effective learning methods.