EAST LANSING, MI -- Governor Gretchen Whitmer reappointe Laurie Linscott, director of the Michigan State University Child Development Laboratory, to her Early Childhood Investment Corporation Executive Committee from August 7, 2025, to July 22, 2029.
The Early Childhood Investment Corporation (ECIC) was created in 2005 to be a statewide leader in early childhood. ECIC collaborates to increase public and private investment in the earliest years, to elevate issues affecting young children and their families, and continuously improve Michigan’s comprehensive early childhood system, ensuring every child has the opportunity to succeed in school and in life.
“I feel honored by the reappointment,” Linscott said. “My entire career has been spent in community collaboration working to help build systems that are unified to make it easier for children and families to access what they need.”
According to the Michigan Department of Education, children’s brains develop 80% between birth and the age of three.
“The research that continues to come out on brain development means that this is a significant time for us to support children and families and have accessible systems that do that,” Linscott said.
During her third term, Linscott hopes the committee can support growth in the number of providers, locations and options for families. With the current focus on expansion of early care and education opportunities for children and families and to develop systems in support of sustainability.
Throughout her first and second appointments to the committee that began in 2017, Linscott witnessed Michigan communities gain greater awareness of and investment in early childcare and education. ECIC’s director prioritized diversifying funding, community investment and family leadership. During this new term, Linscott hopes to continue the momentum around investment in early childcare and education.
“We have businesses, chambers of commerce, early care and education settings all talking and planning together,” she said. “My vision is to continue that movement to become a sustainable system.”
In addition to the ECIC, Linscott participates on a number of committees, helping to shape early child care and education opportunities in communities and throughout the state. Her passion for building unified systems and helping families learn how to advocate for their children stems from her own experiences as a mother who had a child who received Early On services understanding services available and learning to navigate systems.“
She brings her passion for supporting families to her work as director of the MSU Child Development Lab. The CDL was created with a three-pronged mission: research, teaching and outreach. A center that provides quality early care and education, teacher training, and the opportunity to support research on child development, the CDL also helps families learn how to advocate for their children’s needs.
“Watching children develop is so rewarding, especially being part of the community you serve gives you a chance to see them grow up,” she said. “And more rewarding is watching the university graduates of our program grow and to see what they’re doing in the field when they go back to their communities -- how they’re transferring the knowledge here and embedding it in the community in a way that meets that community’s needs.”
The CDL also supports classroom inquiry and university research in child development and education. The research committee consists of Linscott, a Department of Human Development and Family Studies (HDFS) faculty member, the assistant director at each CDL site and teacher representatives. This ensures that university research has a practical and meaningful application in real classroom settings.
“You can only have meaningful research and teacher education if you have high quality programs for families. That’s truly at the center of everything we do,” Linscott said.
Through her work with children in the classroom, her ability to train the next generation of early care and education professionals, and her leadership in collaborating to build empowering systems for families, Linscott has spent her career making a difference across Michigan.
“Laurie’s appointment to the ECIC is a testament to her reputation as a leader in early childhood education and development and reflects the CDL and HDFS reputation as a valued asset,” said Dr. Andrea Wittenborn, professor and chair of the MSU Department of Human Development and Family Studies. “We appreciate her willingness to serve and represent us at such a critical time to shape public policy.”
To learn more about the MSU Child Development Lab’s programs, training and outreach, visit https://hdfs.msu.edu/outreach/cdl.