Sheila Skiffington has more than 30 years of experience facilitating advancements to education systems change. She is an expert in policy development and analysis, professional development initiatives, quality improvement efforts, early childhood education programming and financing, and the development and alignment of standards and practices across systems and from preschool to the primary grades.

Skiffington oversees four national early childhood technical assistance centers in which EDC plays a major role. These include the Center on Enhancing Early Learning Outcomes (CEELO), funded by the U.S. Department of Education, and three centers funded by the Office of Head Start: the National Centers on Cultural and Linguistic Responsiveness, Program Management and Fiscal Operations, and Health and Mental Health. All four centers seek to improve program and staff practices to improve young children’s learning and development outcomes.

A highly experienced professional developer, Skiffington was influential in the design of the Excellence in Teaching program, a series of innovative credit-bearing courses aimed at increasing the pedagogical competence of early childhood teachers.  She has also spearheaded early literacy programs with a focus on family support and co-authored a national parent education program called Our Reading and Writing Journey. 

As the director of EDC’s QUILT project, Skiffington engaged early education leaders nationwide in collaboratively addressing the field's issues. She continues to work closely with a wide range of early education partners to collaboratively solve critical issues and to build high-quality early education systems across all programs and service providers. Currently, she partners with institutions such as Bank Street College of Education, Georgetown University, the American Academy of Pediatrics, WETA, and the National Institute for Early Education Research.

Skiffington is the coauthor of "Child Care/Head Start Partnership Final Report," "Migrant and Seasonal Head Start and Child Care Partnerships: A Report from the Field," and "Instructional Coaching: Helping Teachers Achieve Their Very Best." From her QUILT work and consultation with states, she generated a collection of powerful tools, protocols, and other materials that states continue to draw on to refine early learning standards, funding mechanisms, and assessment systems.
 
Skiffington received a BS from the University of Rhode Island and has done graduate studies at Wheelock College and the University of Rhode Island.