Dr. Nicole Megan Edwards earned her PhD in Special Education from University of Maryland, College Park and is a tenured Associate Professor at Rowan University. Her research focuses on access to and quality of family-centered, strengths-based service delivery for young children at risk for and with diagnosed disabilities across diverse birth-five settings. Dr. Edwards examines factors that promote earlier screening and referral to Part C of IDEA (federal Child Find Mandate), family–provider collaboration and capacity-building, early emotional development, and roadblocks to implementing multi-tiered Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports. She has served as co-leader of the international Division for Early Childhood's Early Intervention Community of Practice and program co-chair for the American Educational Research Association's Family-School-Community Partnerships SIG. She co-chairs the subcommittee on Interdisciplinary Support to EI/ECSE and Partners for the International DEC Research Committee and is co-PI on a funded project examining the ecology of immigrant families and their integration into Camden City, NJ. She is a peer reviewer on the editorial board of Early Education and Development, Journal of Early Intervention, and TEACHING Exceptional Children. Dr. Edwards is also author of a book published with Brookes Publishing, Early Social-Emotional Development: Your Guide to Promoting Children's Positive Positive Behavior (https://products.brookespublishing.com/Early-Social-Emotional-Development-P1059.aspx). Dr. Edwards is coordinator and advisor of the MA in Special Education, the Early Childhood Special Education Certificate of Graduate Study, and the Teacher of Students with Disabilities (TOSD) Graduate Endorsement programs.  She lives with her husband and two sons in Pennsylvania.