Arlene Paxton

Overview

Arlene Paxton has more than 25 years of experience working to design and develop systems that deliver professional development for early educators serving children from birth to age 3 and their families. This work aims to increase the capacity for, provide access to, and improve the quality of infant and toddler care.  

Paxton is responsible for the overall vision, strategy, operations, and business development of the Infant and Toddler Care Area, which includes over $8 million annually in direct service work. The signature project in this area is the nationally recognized Program for Infant and Toddler Care (PITC), a collaboration with the State of California for over 35 years and a WestEd top-tier program.  

Paxton’s most current achievement includes contributions to and author acknowledgements in the recently published PITC Curriculum. The PITC Curriculum is a new offering by PITC that includes planning tools and strategies that support the efforts of early care and education providers to facilitate high-quality individualized learning and health development for children from birth to age 3.  

Before joining WestEd, Paxton was responsible for the coordination and implementation of a citywide early literacy project initiated by the mayor’s office in Oakland, CA. Her understanding of the importance of the first 3 years of life aligned with the mayor’s initiative to support quality and intentional early learning experiences for the city’s youngest citizens. She also has several years of experience in teaching and programmatic leadership at Head Start and Early Head Start programs in Oakland, CA. 

Education

• Reggio Emilia Study Tour of Infant/Toddler Programs, Reggio Emilia, Italy, 2003  
• MA in human development, Pacific Oaks College  
• BA in child development, California State University, Humboldt 

Select Publications

Harkins, D., Lally, J. R., Mangione, P. L., Morabito, A., & Paxton, A. (2021). The PITC curriculum. WestEd. 

Lally, J. R., Mangione, P. L., Morabito, A., & Paxton, A. (2018, November). The essence of infant/toddler curriculum: PITC’s approach to infant and toddler initiated learning experiences [Presentation]. The National Association for the Education of Young Children Annual Conference, Washington, DC, United States. 

Lally, J. R., Maguire-Fong, M. J., & Paxton, A. R. (2013). Reflective curriculum planning: A guide to implementation. Educare Learning Network; The Ounce; WestEd. 

Mangione ,P. L., Lally, J. R., Poole, J. L., Tuesta, A., & Paxton, A. R. (2011). Integrating resources and strategies into an emerging system of professional development: The case of PITC in California. Zero to Three, 11–17. 

Honors, Awards, and Affiliations

Honors received include the WestEd Paul Hood Award for Distinguished Contribution to the Field, 2003.