Elita Amini Virmani serves as Program for Infant/Toddler Care (PITC) Faculty at WestEd’s Center for Child and Family Studies (CCFS). She also is an Associate Professor in Early Childhood Studies at Sonoma State University.
Prior to joining Sonoma State University, Amini Virmani was the Director of Training for the nationally recognized PITC. As Director of Training for PITC, Amini Virmani led high-quality training experiences for infant and early childhood professionals to support them in their aim to provide early, continuous, intensive, and comprehensive child development and family support services.
Amini Virmani has taught at San Francisco State University and West Valley College. She also conducted research studies focused on enhancing the quality of early childhood education and investigated influences of parent-child interactions on children’s emotional development and social competence.
She received intensive clinical training at the University of California, San Francisco Infant-Parent Program/Daycare Consultants, where she provided clinical services to low-income, multiethnic families and mental health consultation to child care program staff and parents of children with special needs.
In 2016, Amini Virmani was recognized as an Exceptional Emerging Leader by the Exchange Child Care Magazine’s Leadership Initiative.
Amini Virmani received an MS in child development and a PhD in human development from the University of California, Davis.