Suzanne Bouffard
Senior Vice President, Communications & Publications
Suzanne Bouffard is senior vice president of communications and publications at Learning Forward. She is the editor of The Learning Professional, Learning Forward’s flagship publication. She also contributes to the Learning Forward blog and webinars. With a background in child development, she has a passion for making research and best practices accessible to educators, policymakers, and families. She has written for many national publications including The New York Times and the Atlantic, and previously worked as a writer and researcher at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She has a Ph.D. in developmental psychology from Duke University and a B.A. from Wesleyan University. She loves working with authors to help them develop their ideas and voices for publication.
All Articles
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The need for SEL is greater than ever
In 2018, my first editor’s column in The Learning Professional made the case for integrating social and emotional learning (SEL) into professional learning in more explicit and visible ways. Three years and multiple global crises later, the need is more urgent than ever, and the justification for ignoring it in […] -
To make SEL stick, align school and out-of-school time
For 20 years, Prime Time Palm Beach County, a nonprofit organization in Florida, has supported local out-of-school time programs with professional learning, capacity building, and other resources. One of the organization’s most popular and longest-running professional learning offerings is called Bringing Yourself to Work, which helps out-of-school time practitioners develop […] -
Sparking dialogue that leads to action
Equity is a focus in every issue of The Learning Professional and in all of Learning Forward’s work. In recognition of the urgency of this work, in 2021 we are devoting two full issues to how educators can leverage professional learning to achieve equity for all students, starting with this issue on […] -
Investing in early learning benefits us all
Little children are a big deal for schools today. Mounting evidence about the benefits of early childhood education has motivated thousands of school districts to offer pre-K. Research on the foundations of literacy has spurred greater identification of reading disorders in kindergarten. And knowledge about how students develop over time […] -
Coaches shape early learning and beyond
In 2016-17, I spent many hours with the educators and staff of Boston Public Schools’ early childhood program, including the Eliot K-8 Innovation School in Boston’s historic North End neighborhood. The Eliot had made a remarkable turnaround over a 10-year period — a transformation that principal Traci Griffith attributed, in […] -
The hope of brighter days ahead
When designer Kitty Black showed me a draft of this issue’s cover, I couldn’t look away. Over the past year, there have been many images from which I couldn’t turn my eyes, or my thoughts late at night. But this was different. I kept looking at the image of this […] -
Crisis creates opportunity. Will we seize it?
The Learning Professional recently interviewed Mehta about how the COVID-19 pandemic is changing teaching and learning and how to seize opportunities for improving schools moving forward. Our conversation has been condensed and edited. Q: Since last spring, you have been studying schools’ reactions to the crisis and the implications for […] -
How to support educators through the crisis at the U.S. Capitol
Even with hope for the new year still fresh, many educators and students have been traumatized by the events of this week in the U.S. Capitol. Teachers and other school staff – already carrying the heavy burdens of educating during a pandemic and confronting racism and inequity – face the […] -
The Learning Professional’s top 10 articles of 2020
At this time last year, when we were planning 2020’s issues of The Learning Professional, we never could have predicted that the most popular articles of the next year would have titles like “Professional learning in a pandemic” and “Long distance leadership.” But as we all found ourselves confronting new […] -
What early educators can teach us all about thriving during COVID
There’s no question that teaching young children is a challenge right now. Whether classrooms are remote or in-person with physical distancing measures, it takes even more planning and creativity than usual to facilitate the kinds of hands-on, collaborative learning that are the hallmarks of high-quality early childhood education. But teachers […]