Joyce VanTassel-Baska is The Jody and Layton Smith Professor of Education and Executive Director of the Center for Gifted Education at the College of William and Mary in Virginia where she has developed a graduate program and a research and development center in gifted education. Formerly she initiated and directed the Center for Talent Development at Northwestern University. She has also served as the state director of gifted programs for Illinois, as a regional director of a gifted service center in the Chicago area, as coordinator of gifted programs for the Toledo, Ohio public school system, and as a teacher of gifted high school students in English and Latin. She has worked as a consultant on gifted education in all 50 states and for key national groups, including the U.S. Department of Education, National Association of Secondary School Principals, and American Association of School Administrators. She has consulted internationally in Australia, New Zealand, Hungary, Jordan, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates. She is past president of The Association for the Gifted of the Council for Exceptional Children, and the Northwestern University Chapter of Phi Delta Kappa. She is currently President of the National Association for Gifted Children.

Dr. VanTassel-Baska has published widely including 20 books and over 345 refereed journal articles, book chapters, and scholarly reports. Recent books include: Comprehensive Curriculum for Gifted Education (3rd Edition) (2006) (with Tamra Stambaugh), Curriculum for Gifted Students (2004), Designing and Utilizing Evaluation for Gifted Program Improvement (2004) (with Annie Feng), Content-based Curriculum for Gifted Learners (2003) (with Catherine Little) and Curriculum Planning and Instructional Design for Gifted Learners (2003). She also served as the editor of Gifted and Talented International, a publication of the World Council on Gifted and Talented, from 1998-2005.

Dr. VanTassel-Baska has received numerous awards for her work, including the National Association for Gifted Children’s Early Leader Award in 1986, the State Council of Higher Education in Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award in 1993, the Phi Beta Kappa faculty award in 1995, and the National Association of Gifted Children Distinguished Scholar Award in 1997. She has received awards from five states - Ohio, Virginia, Colorado, South Carolina, and Illinois - for her contribution to the field of gifted education in those states. She was selected as a Fulbright Scholar to New Zealand in 2000 and a visiting scholar to Cambridge University in England in 1993. Her major research interests are on the talent development process and effective curricular interventions with the gifted. She holds B.A., M.A., M. Ed., and Ed.D. degrees from the University of Toledo.

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