Janice Keizer

Janice Esau Keizer is a senior technical assistance consultant with the Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Southwest. In this position, she leads, coordinates, and facilitates the work of the Arkansas and New Mexico PreK Research Alliances as part of the REL Southwest work. She serves as the spokesperson for REL Southwest support activities related to prekindergarten in the states of Arkansas and New Mexico. Keizer also works on early childhood projects for the Texas Comprehensive Center. She served as the lead early childhood consultant to the Texas Education Agency on a project to review and select student progress monitoring instruments that are included in the state’s list of approved prekindergarten child progress monitoring measures.

Keizer’s work in the areas of early childhood and prekindergarten education is supported by her years of experience as a preschool teacher, early childhood program director, and coordinator of online learning and adjunct professor. In addition to her work at AIR, Keizer serves as the coordinator of the online early childhood B.A. program and an adjunct professor of Early Childhood Education, Child Growth and Development, Child Behavior Guidance, Children’s Literature, and other courses in the College of Education at Concordia University in St. Paul, Minnesota. Previously, she served as an adjunct professor in the Child Development Department at Austin Community College in Austin, Texas. She spent four years as a school readiness integration specialist at the Education Service Center Region XIII in Central Texaswhere she led technical assistance and professional development projects for local education agencies in Central Texas. Her expertise includes assisting local school leaders, state education agencies, and community partners to identify students who qualify for prekindergarten services and to coordinate programs to meet their needs. She served as interim executive director of the National Association of Child Care Professionals and department director of the Texas Association of School Boards. Keizer began her career in education as a prekindergarten teacher and preschool program director. She currently is pursuing a doctorate in transformational leadership from Concordia University Portland.