Marsico Institute
About Us
MIELL works in collaboration with faculty across the University of Denver who are interested in early childhood research and policy. Partnerships include the Morgridge College of Education, Graduate School of Professional Psychology, Early Childhood Librarianship Master's Degree program, Fisher Early Learning Center, Office of Teaching and Learning, and the Ricks Center for Gifted Children, among others. Partnerships outside of the University include Clayton Early Learning, Colorado Department of Education, Colorado Children's Campaign, Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Mile High United Way, Qualistar Early Learning, and the Lt. Governor's Office.
Amanda Moreno, Ph.D.
Dr. Moreno is currently the Interim Director of the Marsico Institute. Prior to her appointment at DU, Dr. Moreno was research Faculty at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and a Senior Researcher at a non-profit research firm in Denver. Her research and service work has always centered around improving developmental outcomes for children in poverty. She has been the Principal Investigator on federal, state, and local research grants, and has published first-authored work in refereed journals such as Infant and Child Development and The Early Childhood Research Quarterly. Currently, Dr. Moreno designs, implements, and oversees projects related to executive function development in preschoolers, enhancing teacher-child and parent-child interactions in at-risk settings, and evaluating the effectiveness of community-based approaches to improving children's early science and literacy achievement. She is also an active member of Colorado's early childhood community, contributing to several stakeholder groups and initiatives that influence policy related to the well-being of children and the adults who care for them.
Sheridan Green, M.S.
Sheridan Green is a Senior Researcher at the Marsico Institute. She has worked for over 20 years in academic, community and local government settings, spanning a variety of fields including early childhood care and education, child and youth development, and child and public welfare. Ms. Green holds a Master's degree in Human Development and Family Studies and is ABD at the University of Northern Colorado where her doctoral program focuses on applied statistics and research methods. Her dissertation employs the national Early Head Start dataset to examine the sensitivity of study conclusions to violations of design assumptions. Her research interests center on infant mental health, parent-child relationships, and the effects of intervention and education on the quality of early childhood teacher-child interactions, including the use of music and the arts to strengthen interactions, early learning, and literacy.
Irena Pikovsky, Ph.D.
Irena Pikovsky recently completed her doctorate in developmental psychology at the University of Denver. She specializes in studying risk and resiliency factors in childhood. Her dissertation examined the relationships among early environmental risk factors, genetic risk alleles, and physiologic stress regulation in middle childhood. Irena hopes to apply this research on individual differences toward helping parents and educators better support children. Relatedly, Irena is passionate about intervention research targeting at-risk children and families, and as such has been very excited to work on the Mile High United Way Social Innovation Fund Implementation Support Team, and the Professionalizing Infant-Toddler Care project at MIELL.
Jessica Craig, B.A.
Jessica Craig is the Office Manager/Project Coordinator for the Marsico Institute. Jessica brings over 10 years of volunteerism and professional involvement in the nonprofit sector. Her work experience is in donor management, event coordination, project coordination for childhood projects, client relations, funding research, grants management, budget management and contracting. At MIELL, Jessica manages the day-to-day operation of the office, provides administrative support to the directors, works with the directors to successfully carry out the institute's strategic plans, maintains the accuracy of institute information on the website, provides budget management and oversight, plans logistics for special community events, and ensures oversight of grants and contracts. Jessica earned a B.A. in psychology from Metropolitan State University of Denver. Currently, Jessica is pursuing a Master's in Counseling Psychology at the University of Denver, Morgridge College of Education. Jessica's commitment to community, children and arts has driven her to volunteer to teach traditional cultural dance for children, and to direct the Children's Ministry in her religious community in her spare time.
Vivienne Houghton, M.L.I.S.
Vivienne Houghton completed her Masters in Library and Information Science at the University of Denver in 2012. Vivienne loves web design, information architecture and content strategy. She is currently the Web Content Manager and has been editing content for the MIELL and Early Childhood Colorado websites since 2010. Vivienne is passionate about early literacy. She was in the first cohort of Early Childhood Librarianship Fellows at DU. As part of her capstone, she developed an Early Literacy Online Resource Guide to address the lack of early literacy information on the websites of Colorado’s public libraries as featured on the Colorado State Library's website.
Graduate Students
Sarah Elizabeth Cleary, M.Ed.
Sarah is a second year student in the Counseling Psychology PhD program at the University of Denver. Prior to attending DU, Sarah received her Master's degree in Community Counseling from Loyola University Chicago. Much of Sarah's experience thus far has been in working with children, adolescents and families at community mental health settings. Sarah's main interests for research and practice include prevention and advocacy for at-risk youths, and how early traumatic experiences impact developmental processes across the lifespan. At MIELL, Sarah provides support to all projects including Early Literacy Technical Support, Buffering Toxic Stress for Infants and Toddlers, and social policy work.
Brenda Garcia, B.A.
Brenda is a third year Education Specialist candidate in the Child, Family, and School Psychology program with a certificate in Early Childhood. Brenda came to DU with her bachelor's in Psychology from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Brenda has experience teaching preschool, elementary and high school students. She has worked closely with diverse communities and is highly interested in advocating for at risk- youth and their families. Brenda's other interests include early literacy, early childhood intervention and mental health. At MIELL, she is assisting with Buffering Toxic Stress for Infants and Toddlers, Early Literacy Technical Support, and the Marsico Buell-Infant Toddler Study.
Sara Catherine Sadd, B.S.
Sara is a third year Educational Specialist candidate in the Child, Family and School Psychology program with a certificate in Early Childhood. Sara came to DU with her bachelor's in Human Development and Family Studies as well as an Early Childhood Teaching License from Colorado State University. Sara has experience teaching preschool, elementary school and working with diverse families. She is especially interested in working with children and families who have been exposed to trauma. Sara's other interests include early childhood mental health, social-emotional curriculum development and early literacy. At MIELL, she is assisting with the Early Literacy Technical Support Project as well as the Marsico-Buell Infant-Toddler Study.