Who We Are

The conditions of the Institute’s founding placed it in a unique position. As a totally new entity of the University of Nebraska, the Institute did not have any previous achievements to live up to or any potentially negative history to overcome. Rather, by working with early childhood researchers, faculty, policy stakeholders of the university, and the early education and K–12 communities of the state, along with policymakers and others committed to enhancing the lives of young children, it became evident that the Institute could set a course for Nebraska and the field that would only be strengthened by history, not encumbered by it.

From the outset, the Buffett Institute possessed what it required to meet its initial goals. It had philanthropic support; university backing; strong research expertise; committed publicand private-sector advocates; highly qualified practitioners in the community; impassioned leaders, colleagues, and students at the university; the applied research tradition of a landgrant institution; and tremendous public goodwill.

Within this supportive and committed context, the Institute was structured to operate across all four campuses of the University of Nebraska—including the land-grant flagship campus in Lincoln (UNL), academic medical center (UNMC) and metropolitan campus in Omaha (UNO), and primarily undergraduate campus in Kearney (UNK). This structure is designed to maximize opportunities for cross-campus collaborations and statewide partnerships, establishing a new model for how higher education is engaged in the first years of life.

In my view, Nebraska's public university can't afford not to be engaged in early childhood. When children have a healthy and happy start to life, they are set up to succeed down the road in high school, in college, in the workforce. This was the thinking behind the creation of the Buffett Early Childhood Institute at the University of Nebraska, and it has become one of our shining beacons of light here at the university.

– Ted Carter, President, University of Nebraska System

Four-Campus Institute of the University of Nebraska

As the Institute completes its first decade of operation, the university continues to prioritize early childhood education as an area of expertise, investment, and focus for cultivating partnerships across Nebraska. Today, the Institute employs more than 50 people who work collaboratively across six organizational units at the Institute’s administrative office in Aksarben Village, which is adjacent to UNO’s Scott Campus and UNMC’s Munroe-Meyer Institute in Omaha. Institute staff collaborate with faculty and students across the university’s four campuses—working closely with campus-based endowed community chairs and supporting graduate students through fellowships and research assistantships. The Institute’s organizational structure is illustrated in Figure 1.

Six Organizational Units. The Institute is organized into six units—Program Development, Research and Evaluation, Workforce Planning and Development, Professional Learning, Communications, and Operations. Across these six units, Institute staff representing diverse backgrounds and areas of expertise work collaboratively, combining interests in basic and applied research with professional development, policy development, and outreach to the four corners of the state—all focused on changing early childhood systems to ensure all children birth–Grade 3 have equitable opportunities for healthy development and learning. A list of current staff is provided as Appendix A.

Campus-Based Endowed Community Chairs. The Buffett Institute established four endowed community chairs on the University of Nebraska campuses. Each of these professorships is intended to focus on different dimensions or sectors of early childhood development. Overall, the community chairs reflect the interdisciplinary commitment of the Institute. The Institute seeks to reflect the strengths of each campus, and the community chair represents a new role for faculty that goes well beyond teaching, research, and service to include campus leadership and responsiveness to the local community through translational and applied research. More information about the community chairs is provided as Appendix B.

Graduate Scholars. The Institute offers fellowships for advanced doctoral students conducting research concerning early development. The overriding goal of the program is to increase the diversity and skills of doctoral scholars conducting innovative research with implications for early childhood, with particular attention to children placed at risk as a consequence of economic, social, and environmental circumstances. In addition, the Institute seeks to support quality research from such diverse fields as health, education, social work, engineering, music, art, psychology, physiology, and others. Multidisciplinary research and new methodologies are encouraged.

The fellowship program provides financial support for students admitted to doctoral candidacy in the University of Nebraska system. Each year, a maximum of four students receive awards up to $25,000 to explore issues relevant to early development while completing their doctoral dissertations. To date, the Institute has supported 21 scholars across the University of Nebraska System totaling an investment of $525,000, including the four scholars who were awarded fellowships for the 2022–23 year. More detailed information on the scholars and their projects is provided in Appendix C and can be found on the Institute website.1

Graduate Research Assistants. The Institute has supported students as graduate research assistants (GRAs) every year since 2015. Graduate students who serve as assistants contribute to the processes and products of the Institute while receiving experience and mentoring that will support their studies and career paths. GRAs support the Institute’s ongoing work by compiling and writing literature reviews, contributing to the development of surveys, assisting with the recruitment of participants, performing statistical analyses, conducting and analyzing data from focus groups and interviews, and supporting work with community partners. In addition, GRAs receive mentoring and support related to their personal and professional goals.

To date, the Institute has supported 22 graduate research assistants with mentoring and funding, including 13 from UNL and nine from UNO. In alignment with the Institute’s interdisciplinary commitment, the GRAs represent diverse academic disciplines and departments and have contributed to a number of Institute projects; for details, see Appendix C.

Buffett Institute Collaboratorium. Located on the UNL campus in Teachers College Hall, the Collaboratorium serves as a setting for multidisciplinary conversations about early childhood development that draw faculty and students from a range of different colleges and areas of interest on the UNL and other campuses, as well as early childhood practitioners. It is equipped with state-of-the-art communications equipment to facilitate meetings between early childhood researchers and practitioners across the state, the nation, and the globe. Additionally, the Collaboratorium provides space for advanced graduate students and postdoctoral appointees to study and work together.