Teresa Elizabeth Gonczy is an entrepreneurial leader and enthusiastic educator, who is passionate about building communities and educational systems where kids and adults feel capable of creating their lives and changing the world. She has a special affinity for young children, and seeks to understand how our early experiences shape our lives. Her research interests are in the large-scale improvement of adult-child interaction quality - including parents, early childhood teachers, and other caregivers - using intervention design and program evaluation with an understanding of how learning happens for young children, how behavior change happens for adults, and how continuous improvement and radical change happens for organizations. Teresa is focused on bringing early learning research into innovative policies and practice, including systems building and workforce development.
Before her Masters in Education Policy and Management from Harvard, Teresa managed and directed successful educational & social enterprise projects and organizations for over ten years. She also has over six years experience teaching in a variety of settings, everything from high school math & science to sign language for babies to ballet & acroyoga.
Currently, Teresa is doing policy and research consulting around early childhood systems and capacity building. She is working with county-level and state-wide organizations, as well as academia, on a variety of projects, including advocacy, facilitation, strategic planning, data analysis, literature reviews, and writing. In addition to early childhood systems-level work, Teresa combines her passions for early learning and STEM education through sharing research-backed findings about early STEM learning at @earlymath. Teresa presents on early learning at national, regional, state, and local conferences, including the NAEYC 2015 Annual Conference, the MassAEYC 2016 Conference, the CAEYC 2015 & 2017 Annual Conference, the OregonAEYC 2017 Conference, the Head Start Region 9 Early STEM Institute 2014 & 2017, and the San Francisco Child Care Providers Association Annual Conference 2017.
Teresa recently completed a Masters degree at the Harvard Graduate School of Education with coursework in education policy, research, and leadership. Her particular focus was on early childhood quality improvement, policy analysis, and program evaluation. Teresa also consulted with the HGSE Associate Dean of Learning & Teaching to evaluate the implementation of the HGSE non-credit Special Topics Workshops. She gathered qualitative & quantitative measures through interviews, focus groups, & surveys; analyzed the data; and presented change recommendations, Besides classes, she was involved in managing multiple projects and events as the Officer of Academic Affairs for the HGSE Student Council, the Logistics Chair for the Student Research Conference, and the Founder of the HGSE Early Childhood Student Group. Over the summer before HGSE, she did a graduate internship in research and policy at the Boston Public Schools Department of Early Childhood,
Before her mid-career masters to switch to systems-level work, Teresa owned and managed A Mother's Haven, a parent-child early learning center providing support, information, and community for over 2500 families a year in the San Fernando Valley area through prenatal classes, mommy&baby groups, interactive workshops, and special events. She also helped to start and was on the founding Board of Directors for Los Angeles Makerspace, a kid-friendly hackerspace in Downtown LA committed to exploring new ideas in a creative, collaborative environment for all ages. She was a mentor for the Thiel Foundation 20under20 Fellowship, which inspires some of the world’s most innovative young people, and helps them bring their ambitious ideas and projects to life.
Teresa enjoys planning and assisting at events, creating communities of innovative thinkers. She has helped with the organization and promotion of the BIL Conference since 2012, and has volunteered with Maker Faire, Hack the Future, Design for Dance, Singularity Summit, Humanity+, Personalized Life Extension, MindshareLA, Thiel Under20 Summit, Health Extension Salon, Women2.0, Being Human, MIND Research Math Fair, STEAM Carnival, Chicago Ideas Week, and CommunitiesSquared. Teresa has also spoken at the ABC Spring Show on using events & classes to drive traffic and revenue, at the Thiel Summits on identifying and serving your ideal customer, at the Silicon Beach Fest on making educational technology more hands-on, and at CommunitiesSquared on creating family-friendly intentional communities.
Teresa graduated early from high school with honors to attend California Institute of Technology (Caltech), but soon realized that as much as she loves math & science, she didn't want to be in a lab or behind a computer every day. She finished her bachelors degree at University of California - San Diego in Cognitive Science, studying how we develop from one cell to become thinking, speaking, emoting, creating beings. While still at UCSD, Teresa bought her first business: Applause Dancewear. Over the next three years, she doubled revenues through extraordinary customer service, collaborative partnerships with local dance studios, and expanded marketing & special events.
After selling Applause Dancewear, Teresa completed an in-depth case study of the cognitive, emotional, and physical development of one baby boy from 6-18 month old ... aka she was his fabulous nanny! Then Teresa assisted the two co-founders of Innovations Academy to get their charter elementary school started and running smoothly through the first year. She was particularly excited about Innovations because of its commitment to inquiry-based, curiosity-led learning through establishing an environment where students feel encouraged to explore and create.
Over the course of launching and building these organizations, Teresa has always been teaching and educating all ages. She began at Caltech teaching adult dance classes and organizing a summer program for Creative Movement for Preschoolers. Then Teresa tutored elementary school children in math, reading, and science at SCORE Educational Centers, while taking early childhood education classes and tutoring in the Math Resource Center at Pasadena City College. Later in San Diego, Teresa taught dance for preschoolers, elementary students, and adults at the Ray & Joan Kroc Center. While at UCSD, she was the TA for COGS 18: Intro to Programming for Cognitive Science. After graduating, Teresa worked with High Bluff Academy in Del Mar for over five years, where she developed curriculum & taught classes in chemistry, algebra II, and precalculus as well as one-on-one courses for credit in algebra II, geometry, precalculus, statistics, biology, chemistry, physics, & child development psychology, and also tutored all levels of high school math & science and SAT/ACT prep. At Innovations Academy, Teresa taught algebra II and beginning programming to the advanced eighth-grade students. More recently, Teresa has instructed classes in sign language for babies, tiny dancer for toddlers, mommy&baby yoga, and prenatal yoga at A Mother's Haven Educational Center, and she also lead partner acroyoga and blues dancing workshops at the BIL Conference.
Before her Masters in Education Policy and Management from Harvard, Teresa managed and directed successful educational & social enterprise projects and organizations for over ten years. She also has over six years experience teaching in a variety of settings, everything from high school math & science to sign language for babies to ballet & acroyoga.
Currently, Teresa is doing policy and research consulting around early childhood systems and capacity building. She is working with county-level and state-wide organizations, as well as academia, on a variety of projects, including advocacy, facilitation, strategic planning, data analysis, literature reviews, and writing. In addition to early childhood systems-level work, Teresa combines her passions for early learning and STEM education through sharing research-backed findings about early STEM learning at @earlymath. Teresa presents on early learning at national, regional, state, and local conferences, including the NAEYC 2015 Annual Conference, the MassAEYC 2016 Conference, the CAEYC 2015 & 2017 Annual Conference, the OregonAEYC 2017 Conference, the Head Start Region 9 Early STEM Institute 2014 & 2017, and the San Francisco Child Care Providers Association Annual Conference 2017.
Teresa recently completed a Masters degree at the Harvard Graduate School of Education with coursework in education policy, research, and leadership. Her particular focus was on early childhood quality improvement, policy analysis, and program evaluation. Teresa also consulted with the HGSE Associate Dean of Learning & Teaching to evaluate the implementation of the HGSE non-credit Special Topics Workshops. She gathered qualitative & quantitative measures through interviews, focus groups, & surveys; analyzed the data; and presented change recommendations, Besides classes, she was involved in managing multiple projects and events as the Officer of Academic Affairs for the HGSE Student Council, the Logistics Chair for the Student Research Conference, and the Founder of the HGSE Early Childhood Student Group. Over the summer before HGSE, she did a graduate internship in research and policy at the Boston Public Schools Department of Early Childhood,
Before her mid-career masters to switch to systems-level work, Teresa owned and managed A Mother's Haven, a parent-child early learning center providing support, information, and community for over 2500 families a year in the San Fernando Valley area through prenatal classes, mommy&baby groups, interactive workshops, and special events. She also helped to start and was on the founding Board of Directors for Los Angeles Makerspace, a kid-friendly hackerspace in Downtown LA committed to exploring new ideas in a creative, collaborative environment for all ages. She was a mentor for the Thiel Foundation 20under20 Fellowship, which inspires some of the world’s most innovative young people, and helps them bring their ambitious ideas and projects to life.
Teresa enjoys planning and assisting at events, creating communities of innovative thinkers. She has helped with the organization and promotion of the BIL Conference since 2012, and has volunteered with Maker Faire, Hack the Future, Design for Dance, Singularity Summit, Humanity+, Personalized Life Extension, MindshareLA, Thiel Under20 Summit, Health Extension Salon, Women2.0, Being Human, MIND Research Math Fair, STEAM Carnival, Chicago Ideas Week, and CommunitiesSquared. Teresa has also spoken at the ABC Spring Show on using events & classes to drive traffic and revenue, at the Thiel Summits on identifying and serving your ideal customer, at the Silicon Beach Fest on making educational technology more hands-on, and at CommunitiesSquared on creating family-friendly intentional communities.
Teresa graduated early from high school with honors to attend California Institute of Technology (Caltech), but soon realized that as much as she loves math & science, she didn't want to be in a lab or behind a computer every day. She finished her bachelors degree at University of California - San Diego in Cognitive Science, studying how we develop from one cell to become thinking, speaking, emoting, creating beings. While still at UCSD, Teresa bought her first business: Applause Dancewear. Over the next three years, she doubled revenues through extraordinary customer service, collaborative partnerships with local dance studios, and expanded marketing & special events.
After selling Applause Dancewear, Teresa completed an in-depth case study of the cognitive, emotional, and physical development of one baby boy from 6-18 month old ... aka she was his fabulous nanny! Then Teresa assisted the two co-founders of Innovations Academy to get their charter elementary school started and running smoothly through the first year. She was particularly excited about Innovations because of its commitment to inquiry-based, curiosity-led learning through establishing an environment where students feel encouraged to explore and create.
Over the course of launching and building these organizations, Teresa has always been teaching and educating all ages. She began at Caltech teaching adult dance classes and organizing a summer program for Creative Movement for Preschoolers. Then Teresa tutored elementary school children in math, reading, and science at SCORE Educational Centers, while taking early childhood education classes and tutoring in the Math Resource Center at Pasadena City College. Later in San Diego, Teresa taught dance for preschoolers, elementary students, and adults at the Ray & Joan Kroc Center. While at UCSD, she was the TA for COGS 18: Intro to Programming for Cognitive Science. After graduating, Teresa worked with High Bluff Academy in Del Mar for over five years, where she developed curriculum & taught classes in chemistry, algebra II, and precalculus as well as one-on-one courses for credit in algebra II, geometry, precalculus, statistics, biology, chemistry, physics, & child development psychology, and also tutored all levels of high school math & science and SAT/ACT prep. At Innovations Academy, Teresa taught algebra II and beginning programming to the advanced eighth-grade students. More recently, Teresa has instructed classes in sign language for babies, tiny dancer for toddlers, mommy&baby yoga, and prenatal yoga at A Mother's Haven Educational Center, and she also lead partner acroyoga and blues dancing workshops at the BIL Conference.