Teachers College has received a five-year $50,000 pledge from the Gloria and Hilliard Farber Foundation to enhance The Leslie R. Williams Memorial Scholarship Fund. The fund was established in memory of Williams, a Professor of Education in the Curriculum and Teaching department whose work focused on multicultural and early childhood education. Williams passed away in 2007. Professor Williams wanted all children to be able to experience a high quality early childhood education. This fund reflects her wishes.

The fund provides scholarship assistance to children who otherwise would not be able to attend the Rita Gold Center.  The Center selects recipients of the Williams award on a yearly basis.

Gloria Farber received her Ed.D. in Education from TC in 1993. Her major was Early Childhood Education, with a concentration in Infant and Toddler Development. Her resume includes many years of teaching nursery school. It was during her tenure as Education Director of Dewitt Head Start Program on the Lower East Side that she met Williams. Dewitt Head Start had been selected as a replication site for Williams’ ALERTA approach to teaching English to Spanish-speaking children. She credits Williams with bringing her to Teachers College. Obtaining her doctorate, under Williams’ tutelage, gave her “the knowledge and opportunity to help run a thriving community program in Washington Heights for children and their families.” Upon receiving her degree, Farber assumed her current position as the Education Director of Columbia University Head Start, sponsored by the Mailman School of Public Health. Columbia University Head Start (CUHS) provides services to 300 low-income children and their families from birth to age five, as well as to pregnant women. She also served as a member of the TC Alumni Council and as an Advisory Council member of the Center for Infants and Parents, which is now the Rita Gold Early Childhood Center. She currently serves as a member of Columbia Presbyterian Health Sciences Advisory Council.

Anyone interested in contributing to The Leslie R. Williams Memorial Scholarship Fund may contact Tom Phipps at 212-678-3077 or phipps@tc.edu. If you would like to make a donation by check, please make it payable to Teachers College Columbia University, indicating The Leslie R. Williams Memorial Scholarship Fund name in the memo section, and mail it to TC's Office of Development and External Affairs, Box 306, 525 West 120th Street, New York, NY 10027.

Published Tuesday, Sep. 21, 2010