Karen Liu was recently elected as President-Elect of the Association for Childhood Education International for 2007-2009. Her term officially began at the conclusion of ACEI's Annual Conference (April 12-15) in San Antonio, Texas. Karen Liu is professor of early childhood education at Indiana State University. She received her doctorate degree from Michigan State University in 1982 and taught early childhood education at the University of Minnesota-Waseca prior to coming to Indiana State.
On July 15, 1892, educators concerned with the professional preparation of kindergarten teachers gathered at the Baptist Church in Saratoga Springs, New York, to form the International Kindergarten Union (IKU). The educators sought to consolidate the gains made in early childhood education since the pioneering work of Friedrich Froebel, father of the kindergarten movement, in Germany during the 1820's and 1830's. They also planned collective action to promote kindergarten education at a time when traditional philanthropic support was dwindling and the public education establishment still resisted the concept of the kindergarten. IKU was later re-named as the Association for Childhood Education International (ACEI).
The aim of ACEI is to promote and support in the global community the optimal education and development of children, from birth through early adolescence, and to influence the professional growth of educators and the efforts of others who are committed to the needs of children in a changing society.