Caroline Pietrangelo Owens

Caroline Pietrangelo Owens helps ensure a well-prepared early childhood workforce, leading to higher quality infant/toddler and preschool programs and ultimately to enhanced development for young children.

She serves as the Project Director for the California Department of Education/Early Childhood Education Faculty Initiative Project (FIP), housed with the Center for Child and Family Studies at WestEd. The Faculty Initiative Project supports faculty by aligning content and competencies of key CDE/EESD publications and initiatives with core early childhood education/child development curricula in the California Community College and California State University systems. This project is funded by the California Department of Education's (CDE's) Early Learning and Care Division (ELCD).

In addition, Pietrangelo Owens oversees the development and dissemination of Faculty Initiative Project instructional guides and companion resources to accompany CDE/ELCD publications and initiatives. These instructional guides can be found at https://facultyinitiative.wested.org/. Yearly seminars are also offered where the new instructional guides are presented and explored in depth.

Caroline has extensive experience facilitating trainings and consulting in the field of early care and education with educators, program leaders, and with families. She has been a community college faculty as well as providing online training and reflective practice for educators, parents, and families. Caroline is also certified to offer mindfulness, meditation, and inquiry trainings and sessions for educators, parents, and families both online and in-person.

Besides being a fully certified PITC Trainer, Caroline's background includes being certified as a facilitator with Brazelton's Touchpoints Program, Infant/Toddler Montessori Certification, serving as Head Teacher in Toddler Montessori Programs, Waldorf Trainings, and managing her own Family Child Care/School.
Caroline declares that her two beautiful children (now young adults) have been her greatest teachers!