DR. EDWARD ZIGLER
2008 HUMANITARIAN AWARD
Parents as Teachers National Center
United States
Dr. Edward Zigler has improved the health, education, social and emotional well being of nearly every child in America and thousands worldwide through five decades of pioneering work in early childhood development. After revolutionizing the field in 1965 by helping to found Project Head Start, Zigler has shaped early childhood intervention, education and child care ever since.
Most recently, Zigler was instrumental in developing the Parents as Teachers National Center, a program that has served more than two million children in all 50 states of the U.S. as well as nine other countries. Under Zigler’s guidance, the program emphasizes equality of opportunity in the early years of a child’s life regardless of demographic, geographic or economic considerations and highlights early childhood as a critical period for optimal development and success in life.