You are here: The Institute for Children, Youth & Families > Projects for Community Inclusion > Michigan Early Childhood Inclusion Project > About Us

• Home
• About Us
• Advisory Group
• The Law
• What Is Inclusion?
• Benefits of Inclusion
• Inclusion in Michigan
  
  • Facts
  • Challenges
  • Champions
• Resources
• Links
  
  • World-Wide Resources
  • National Resources
  • Michigan Resources

About Us

Project Team

The core MSU Project Team will consist of individuals from within the university, parents, community members and childhood providers outside the university. The Advisory Council will include parents with children with and without special needs; advocacy group members; school officials; and professionals with expertise on inclusion, child development, care and education from the university and community.

Project Leaders

Esther Onaga, PhD, from the College of Social Science, Department of Family and Child Ecology at Michigan State University, has been committed to inclusion for the past 20 years. She has directed a number of projects promoting inclusion funded from state, federal, and private foundations. These projects served families with children with exceptionalities, individuals with chronic and severe psychiatric illnesses, and community employment training for individuals with disabilities. She has been a principal investigator in two system change projects: Supported Employment and Transition. Dr. Onaga also instructs graduate and undergraduate courses on the topic of families with children with disabilities at Michigan State University.

Francesca Pernice-Duca, PhD, she received the doctoral degree from Michigan State University, Family & Child Ecology, Marriage & Family Specialist. Francesca's research experience and interests involves infant mental health, early childhood education and families with children with disabilities, psychiatric disabilities and community support programs. She is currently working as a research assistant with Dr. Esther Onaga at the Office for Projects for Community Inclusion at Michigan State University. Dr. Pernice-Duca also engages in clinical practice with children, youths, and families as a limited license psychologist at Catholic Social Services in Royal Oak, Michigan.

Rosalind Kirk, PhD, is employed as an Academic Specialist in the Department of Family & Child Ecology at Michigan State University and contributes to a range of research and evaluation projects, primarily with young children, their families and providers of child care. She previously worked as a Head Start Child Outcome Evaluation Specialist. She moved to the USA in 1997 from Scotland where she spent over 15 years working with children and families in various social work capacities from practice to program administration, research and evaluation. Dr. Kirk completed her doctorate (1999) in Social Work and Social Policy on Stress, Coping and Social Inclusion: The Impact of Early Years' Provision on the Support Networks and Wellbeing of Families.

Toko Oshio, M.A., is a doctoral candidate at the Department of Family and Child Ecology with a major of Child Development. Her research interests involve children with special needs and factors that influence the relationship between school and home. Toko has been working as a research assistant for the Projects for Community Inclusion, and a teaching assistant for the introductory child development course at undergraduate level. She worked as a head teacher at the MSU Child Development Laboratories, and her favorite age group is 2-3 years old.