Circle of Influence

Paula Jorde Bloom is Distinguished Professor of Research and Practice and founder of the McCormick Center for Early Childhood Leadership at National Louis University in Wheeling, Illinois. She received her both her MA and Ph.D. from Stanford University. As one of the country’s leading experts on early childhood leadership and program management issues, Dr. Bloom is a frequent keynote speaker at state, national, and international conferences and consultant to professional organizations and state agencies. She has taught preschool and kindergarten, designed and directed a child care center, and served as administrator of a campus laboratory school. Paula is the author of several widely read books on early childhood leadership and management issues including Avoiding Burnout, Blueprint for Action, Making the Most of Meetings, From the Inside Out, Workshop Essentials, Circle of Influence, and Leadership in Action. Paula is also the author of two widely used assessments, the Early Childhood Work Environment Survey (ECWES) and the Early Childhood Job Satisfaction Survey (ECJSS), and co-author with Dr. Teri Talan of two other assessment tools, the Program Administration Scale (PAS) and the Business Administration Scale for Family Child Care (BAS).