Alan Guttman earned a Masters Degree in Early Childhood Education from New York University and has served young children, families and programs for 34 years. He has presented on child abuse reporting for over 17 years at the local, county, state, regional and national levels. Alan is the Program Manager, Early Childhood & Special Education Initiatives at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Technology in Education. He is currently working on the validation study of Maryland’s child care Quality Rating and Improvement System, Maryland EXCELS. From 2001 to 2012 Alan served on federal Head Start review teams evaluating the quality of education services and program management systems.