Spring Fling Featured Speaker
Dr. Christyn Dundorf earned her PhD in Human Development from the University of Rochester with a dissertation exploring the role of receptive language (comprehension) in early literacy acquisition.
Dr. Dundorf began her more than 20 year career in the field in private child care and as an Education Coordinator for Head Start in Rochester, New York.
At Oregon’s Center for Career Development in Childhood Education, Dr. Dundorf coordinated the inaugural implementation of the Oregon Registry, a state credentialing system for community-based training, as well as other statewide initiatives on professional development and mentoring. While at OCCD, Dr. Dundorf authored Early Words, A Language and Literacy Curriculum, a training series designed to promote language and literacy development practices in early care and education programs.
In 2000, Dr. Dundorf joined the Early Education and Family Studies faculty at Portland Community College. She served as Department Chair and instructor from 2002 - 2015. In 2011, Dr. Dundorf led the department in seeking National AAS Accreditation through the National Association for the Education of Young Children. PCC's Early Education and Family Studies Program became the second early care and education AAS program on the west coast to be accredited. In 2007, Dr. Dundorf secured a sabbatical leave and sufficient grant funding to implement Growing the Profession, a project to build regional, grass-roots energy around professionalizing the field of Early Care and Education in Oregon.
Dr. Dundorf is a Master Trainer with the Oregon Registry Trainer System. She has developed and conducted numerous Set 2 and 3 trainings and conference presentations with a focus on early literacy, professional identity and ethics. An experienced speaker, Dr. Dundorf has provided the keynote address for a number of Oregon conferences including OregonAEYC Spring Conference, Jackson County AEYC Conference, and Retreat By The Lake.
Dr. Dundorf is a reliable CLASS observer for the Toddler and PreK CLASS Assessments.