Linda Brault, Project Director
LINDA is the director of Working Together for Inclusion and Belonging, which includes BEGINNING TOGETHER, the California MAP to Inclusion & Belonging…Making Access Possible, and CA CSEFEL Teaching Pyramid, all Working Together projects of WestEd, Center for Child and Family Studies in collaboration with the Early Learning and Care Division of the California Department of Education.
Prior to directing projects for WestEd and, previously, Sonoma State University, Linda was an early childhood special education teacher for more than 18 years. She received two Bachelor degrees from the University of the Pacific: one in music therapy and one in psychology. She received her M.A. in Special Education from CSU Dominguez Hills and holds an Early Intervention Graduate Certificate from San Diego State University. Linda has held board positions in several professional organizations and was a member of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Early Childhood Training Cadre for the International Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children (DEC/CEC). Linda was also an instructor in Child Development at Mira Costa and Palomar Community Colleges.
Linda is passionate about the inclusion of children with special needs into child care settings and has published numerous articles. She speaks frequently on the inclusion of very young children, young children with challenging behaviors, legal requirements in early intervention/early childhood special education and transition between early intervention and special education.
Linda and her husband, Tom, continue to find their adult daughters, Gerilyn and Robyn, to be sources of great wisdom and learning.