Chris Amirault, Ph.D., is a author, trainer, and coach serving professionals in early childhood education and care. He served for two decades as the director of NAEYC-accredited Early Head Start, preschool, and pre-K programs in Rhode Island and Oklahoma.
He was president of the Rhode Island Association for the Education of Young Children and has served as Chair of the Council for NAEYC Accreditation, as a member of the NAEYC Affiliate Advisory Council, as a founding facilitator of NAEYC’s Diversity and Equity Interest Forum, and on NAEYC working groups for developmentally appropriate practice and equity.
Chris has taught undergraduate and graduate education courses at Brown University, the Community College of Rhode Island, the University of Oklahoma, and elsewhere, and served as Director of the Institute for Elementary and Secondary Education at Brown. He has published articles in early childhood journals and presented many times at early childhood conferences on a wide range of topics. Chris is coauthor with Christine M. Snyder of the Free Spirit book, Finding Your Way Through Conflict: Strategies for Early Childhood Educators (2021), and his new book, Sparking Learning in Young Children: Classroom Best Practices, is forthcoming this summer from Shell Education.
Chris concentrated in both English and Computer Science as an undergraduate at Brown University, and he has a M.A. and Ph.D. in Cultural Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The father of two adult daughters, he lives in Salem OR with his wife, dog, and cat.