Thelma Harms

Thelma Harms

Thelma Harms, Ph.D., is Director of Curriculum Development at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute and Research Professor in the School of Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she has been since 1975. She earned an M. A. in Child Development and a Ph. D. in Early Childhood Education at the University of California at Berkeley, where she served as a head teacher in the Harold E. Jones Child Study Center laboratory school for 15 years. Dr. Harms has lectured and conducted training throughout the U.S. as well as in Canada, Germany, Portugal, Sweden, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Russia. Her areas of specialization are program evaluation, curriculum, and staff development.

Dr. Harms is the lead author of four widely used program evaluation instruments: the ECERS-R (Harms, Clifford, & Cryer, 1998); the FDCRS (Harms & Clifford, 1989); the ITERS-R (Harms, Cryer & Clifford, 2003); and the SACERS (Harms, Jacobs, &White, 1996). She consulted with the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) in the development of its center accreditation instruments and validator training procedures and is a co-author of the school age child care assessment instrument, which is being used in the NSACA accreditation. Dr. Harms co-chaired the national committee that developed quality criteria for family child care programs and developed an accreditation process and instruments for military family child care.

Dr. Harms has co-authored a number of curriculum materials including: the Family Day Care Education Series; the seven volume Active Learning Series; the Cook and Learn Series, Nutrition Education for Preschoolers; and the 10-part educational television series, "Raising America's Children". She has co-edited a book on working with homeless preschool children in shelters and a recent volume on infants and toddlers in out of home care.

In addition to training courses offered through the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute in Chapel Hill, Dr. Harms provides training and consultation in collaboration with agencies in many other states and countries.