World Forum International Organizing Committee Biography

Mark R. Ginsberg

Mark R. Ginsberg, Ph.D. is the Executive Director of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), the nation's largest organization dedicated to improving the quality and accessibility of early care and education programs for children from birth through age eight. NAEYC is comprised of nearly 100,000 early childhood professionals, and other individuals who are dedicated to facilitating the development of children and families by improving professional practice and working conditions in early childhood education and building public understanding and support for high quality early care and education programs. The association includes a network of over 300 regional, state and local early childhood associations affiliated with the NAEYC.

NAEYC also accredits early care and education centers through the NAEYC Academy of Early Childhood Programs. More than 9,500 programs serving more than 1,000,000 children each day are accredited by NAEYC with an estimated 11,000 more programs preparing actively to submit their application for accreditation. In addition, the association publishes the journals, Young Children and Teaching Young Children, edits the Early Childhood Research Quarterly, and distributes more than 100 other publications including books, brochures, manuals, posters and video tapes; holds conferences and other professional development programs including the NAEYC annual conference with more than 20,000 attendees; and is active in public policy advocacy at national, state and local levels. Currently, Dr. Ginsberg also serves as the President of the International Step-Step Association, a non-governmental organization of education organizations in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Prior to joining NAEYC, Dr. Ginsberg served as the Chair of the Department of Counseling and Human Services in the Graduate Division of Education at The Johns Hopkins University. He also is a member of the faculty of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Department of Medicine of The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Previous to his work at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Ginsberg was the Executive Director of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy in Washington, DC. He completed his masters degree (1978) and his doctoral degree (1981) at The Pennsylvania State University, after having been awarded a bachelors degree in Psychology from the State University of New York, College at Cortland. In addition, he completed an APA-Approved Internship in Clinical Psychology while a Fellow at the Yale University School of Medicine. In 2006, he also was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters by the State University of New York.

Dr. Ginsberg also is active in his community. He lives in Takoma Park, Maryland with his wife, Elaine A. Anderson, a Professor in the Department of Family Science at the School of Public Health at the University of Maryland, and his two sons, Andrew who is a graduate of Springfield College (Massachusetts) and is the Assistant Men's Lacrosse Coach at Manhattanville College, and Robert who is a student at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. Dr. Ginsberg has participated in the Parent Teacher Organization of the Montgomery County, Maryland public schools and has coached youth soccer, baseball and lacrosse. He also served as a member of the Board of Directors of the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE), and has served on the Finance Committee, Research Committee and Strategic Planning Committee of the ASAE. In addition, he has been an officer of the Montgomery Blair High School Athletics Booster Club and is the public address announcer for Montgomery Blair High School athletics and the Silver Spring-Takoma Thunderbolts, a baseball team affiliated with the Cal Ripken Sr. Collegiate Baseball League.