Erika Christakis is an early childhood educator and New York Times bestselling author of The Importance of Being Little: What Young Children Really Need From Grownups. A former faculty member of the Yale Child Study Center, she has written widely about child development from preschool through the college years. Erika is an honors graduate of Harvard College, where she majored in anthropology, and holds master’s degrees in public health, communication, and early childhood education. She is a Massachusetts-certified teacher (pre-k through 2nd grade) as well as a licensed preschool director. For two years, she wrote a TIME.com Ideas column and her work has been featured in a number of other venues, including The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, CNN.com, Nightline, Salon, NPR, and the Financial Times. A mother of three grown children, she lives with her husband in New Haven, Connecticut.
Read an interview with Erika Christakis on NPR: What Kids Need From Grown-Ups (But Aren’t Getting)