Diane Trister Dodge
Founder and President
Teaching Strategies, Inc.
2010

Read Diane Trister Dodge's AEP Blog entries about her career in educational publishing.

• Part 1: Her greatest influence and the advice she would give to those choosing educational publishing
• Part 2: The greatest challenge she faced and the next big challenge for the educational publishing industry
• Part 3: The accomplishment she is most proud of

Listen to Diane's Hall of Fame Induction and Acceptance.

Diane Trister Dodge founded Teaching Strategies, Inc. in 1988 with a clear mission: to make a positive difference in early childhood education. Starting as the sole employee in her basement, she has expanded the company to a staff of 80 and a network of more than 50 professional development specialists. Teaching Strategies is dedicated to providing the most effective resources in four essential areas: curriculum, assessment, professional development, and family connections.

After teaching preschool and kindergarten, Diane earned a master's degree at Bank Street College of Education. In the early days of Head Start, she moved to Mississippi, where she became the education coordinator for a new program that served 900 children. Diane was responsible for designing the educational program and training 120 teachers from the community-teachers who had no formal background in education but who cared deeply about the children. Then and while working in inner-city child care programs in Washington, D.C., Diane learned to use the latest research on effective teaching as the basis for developing resources that are practical, easy-to-understand, and respectful of teachers at all levels of experience. From her first publication, a filmstrip called Room Arrangement as a Teaching Strategy, to The Creative Curriculum®, one of the most widely used preschool curricula in the United States and one used increasingly in other countries, Teaching Strategies resources have set a standard in the field.

Diane served on the Governing Boards of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (1990-1994) and the Center for the Child Care Workforce (1995-2002). She was also a member of the D.C. Mayor's Advisory Committee on Early Childhood Development (1984-2009). During the 2002-2003 academic year, Diane was the Barbara E. (Mound) Hansen Early Childhood Lecturer at Iowa State University. In October 2004, she received the Bank Street College Alumni Association Recognition Award for outstanding accomplishments in the field of education.