Dr. Lisa Hansel

Lisa Hansel is the director of periodicals for the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). As director of periodicals, she serves as editor in chief of Young Children and Teaching Young Children. Young Children is NAEYC’s peer-reviewed professional journal, covering birth through third grade. Unique among journals, Young Children is both research based and practitioner focused.

She was formerly the director of communications of Core Knowledge, a nonprofit that advocates for developing broad knowledge and vocabulary with content-rich, coherent, cumulative curriculum.

Prior to joining the Foundation in 2013, she was the editor of American Educator, the quarterly journal of educational research and ideas published by the American Federation of Teachers. In that role, she often published articles by E. D. Hirsch, Jr., and Daniel T. Willingham that explained why reading comprehension, critical thinking, and problem solving depend on relevant prior knowledge and why, as a result, all students need a rigorous, coherent, grade-by-grade curriculum that builds broad knowledge. Lisa has a B.S. in Psychology from Washington and Lee University and an Ed.D. in Education Policy from George Washington University, where she was also an adjunct professor and the writer and editor for the National Clearinghouse for Comprehensive School Reform.