Arlitt Staff

Administrators

Victoria Carr

Professor, Early Childhood Education (Birth-5) & Executive Director, Arlitt Center for Education, Research & Sustainability , CECH Arlitt Center

2150H EDWARDS 1 Edwards Center

135-638-3805

carrvw@ucmail.uc.edu

Victoria Carr, Ed.D., is a Professor of Early Childhood Education / Developmental and Learning Sciences in the School of Education and an affiliate faculty member in the UC School of Environment and Sustainability at the University of Cincinnati. She is the Executive Director of the Arlitt Center for Education, Research, and Sustainability. The child development program at the Arlitt Center will be proudly celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2025. She has served in leadership roles for the Arlitt Center since 1995.

Dr. Carr is co-editor-in-chief for Children, Youth and Environments, a journal that publishes research articles and reports from the field on environments where children and youth live, learn, work, and play. She serves on the editorial review board for the Journal of Research in Childhood Education and is an active member of the Transnational Dialogues on Early Childhood Education for Sustainability (ECEfS), now affiliated with the Sustainability in Early Childhood Special Interest Group within the European Early Childhood Research Association.

Dr. Carr co-chairs the Leave No Child Inside Collaborative of Cincinnati, co-founded the Cincinnati Nature Playscape Initiative, and implemented the Arlitt Professional Educator Learning Series. She served for several years on Cincinnati Nature Center's Board of Directors and continues to consult with its programming and applied learning committee. She has served as the faculty advisor for the UC Equestrian Team since 2006.

Dr. Carr conducts research and publishes books and articles on ECEfS, children and nature, teacher efficacy, and challenging behaviors in early childhood settings. She has generated over $27M in funding related to programming and research in early childhood education during her UC career. The National Science Foundation supported her research on informal science learning in playscapes (2011-2019) and she has had multiple projects funded by the PNC Foundation. She assists with landscape design, provides consultation about programming, and conducts research on nature-focused playgrounds, including Cincinnati Nature Center Playscape (2011), Arlitt Playscape (2012), a community-built school playground in Papua New Guinea (2015), and several Head Start and child care centers' playscapes (2016-present).

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Mary Elizabeth Wright

Director of Children's Programs, CECH Arlitt Center

1159 EDWARDS 1 Edwards Center

135-638-3812

wrightme@ucmail.uc.edu

Mary Elizabeth Wright is the Director of Children's Programs at the Arlitt Child and Family Research and Education Center. Previous to accepting this position, Mary Beth was a lead teacher at the Arlitt Center and served as the Managing Editor / Head Writer of Arlitt Instructional Media, our professional development initiative. Mary Beth also is an adjunct professor for UC's early childhood bachelor's degree programs. She earned her bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of Cincinnati.

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