It is with great joy that we welcome our newest members of Pikler/Lóczy USA. As an all-volunteer organization we are grateful for their time and expertise that allow us to continue to serve the early childhood community with dedication, ethics, and integrity.
Board of Trustees: Ms. Vivien Wang
Ms. Vivien Wang, Chairman and CEO of Etonkids Educational Group, started her career as a lecturer in statistics at Xi’an Jiao-Tong University. She later earned her MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management with a concentration in Marketing, Finance, and Education Management. After Kellogg, Ms. Wang worked as an investment strategist at Merrill Lynch’s Wall Street Head Office and has since conducted business seminars at the China Europe International Business School, Peking University, and Tsinghua University. Ms. Wang possesses extensive experience in multinational management and operations, having worked throughout the United States, London, Singapore, and Hong Kong. In 2002, she was elected president of the Kellogg Beijing Alumni Club. In 2006, she successfully organized the first Kellogg Asia Marketing Conference. She currently serves as co-chair and senior consultant for the club.
Ms. Wang founded Etonkids Educational Group in 2002 with collaboration of alumni from Harvard University and Kellogg School of Management as well as American Montessori Society (AMS) experts and quickly built it into China’s leading provider of early education. She has received numerous awards for her contribution to education in China, including being named as part of the “Top 100 Educators in China.” She is the Vice President of the China Private Education-Early Education Committee as well as a member of the American Montessori Society and National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).
Ms. Wang authored a parenting book entitled Hey, Do You Know Your Baby? This book encapsulates 10 years of Etonkids’ Montessori education practice in China and summarizes the educational experience of tens of thousands of Etonkids students from over 50 campuses covering the past 14 years. The book’s central message involves the sharing of valuable and practical information for parents to learn how to evolve their parenting skills and how to help their children to develop into individuals. As a book, which brings together over 10 years of educational experience, it features systematic concepts, vivid examples, scientific methodologies, professional analyses, academic theories, and associated practices. This book can be considered as an informative, entertaining, and practical family parenting encyclopedia. “If you are able to know your baby earlier and provide them with the environment in which to develop, you can help them form the capability to create happiness for themselves. This is the best gift which we can give to our children as parents.”
Advisory Board member: Prof. Natasha Khazanov, Ph.D.
Prof. Natasha Khazanov, Ph.D. presented at our Pikler® USA Conference 2017, and is a neuropsychologist, a psychotherapist, and creator of the SMARTT™ Parenting program. She also is an Associate Clinical Professor au UCSF School of Medicine, where she teaches medical school students and residents. Her deep interest in the neurobiology of trauma led her to forensic field. She served as an expert witness in over eighty criminal (mostly capital) cases. In her SMARTT™ Parenting Program she was able to integrate all she learned in her thirty-year career about the brain, mind and behavior to assist parents and caregivers in raising children who become resilient, responsible and successful adults. Dr. Khazanov believes that, “Dr. Pikler was an intuitive neuroscientist”.
Advisory Board member:
Professor Octavio Pescador, Ph.D.
Professor Octavio Pescador, Ph.D. is a political analyst, senior research associate at Juarez & Associates, and founding research associate of the UCLA Paulo Freire Institute in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. He has worked extensively domestically and internationally for over two decades designing and conducting qualitative and quantitative research projects in education, health and political participation. His expertise include developing survey instruments, conducting needs analyses, and evaluating program outcomes. Dr. Pescador serves as a global affairs analyst for electronic and print media and was named UCLA Mortar Board Honor Senior Society Distinguished Faculty in 2009 and UCLA Bruin Democrat Faculty of the year in 2012. He obtained a Ph.D. in Education from UCLA, a M.A. International Development Education from Stanford University and a B.A. in Political Science from UCLA.
