Barbara Ann Nilsen taught in the early childhood classroom, then in the college classroom and online as professor and chair of the Teacher Education and Early Childhood Department at SUNY Broome Community College in Binghamton, New York. She retired in 2006. She was also the grant director of a state-wide online course collaborative and the Early Learning Opportunities federal project for Building Brighter Futures for Broome. The author received her EdD in Early and Middle Childhood from Nova University (now called Nova Southeastern University) in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. She has been active in local, state, and national early childhood professional development initiatives such as New York State Career Pathways, New York State Children's Program Administrator Infant/Toddler, Family Child Care Credentials, and NAEYC'S Early Childhood Associate Degree Program Accreditation project. She is the co-author, with Virginia Albertalli, of An Introduction to Learning and Teaching: Infants through Sixth Grade, and the author of the Observation and Assessment Professional Enhancement text.