Barbara Kaiser
Judy Sklar Rasminsky

In the 18 years they’ve been working together, Barbara Kaiser and Judy Sklar Rasminsky have written a series of books and booklets that are unique in the field of child care and education. Combining Barbara’s 30 years of experience as a child care director, teacher, and teacher of education with Judy’s professional writing skills, their texts bring readers a front-line perspective, solid research, and pragmatic strategies in a style that’s always easy to read.

BARBARA KAISER is the co-author of Challenging Behavior in Young Children and Meeting the Challenge. She has taught in the Education Department of Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, and at Concordia University and College Marie-Victorin in Montreal, Canada.

In addition to presenting workshops and keynote speeches on the topic of challenging behavior throughout the United States and Canada, Barbara has acted as the chief consultant for several regional projects, and has developed a comprehensive intervention designed to address and prevent violence among young people between the ages of 11 and 15.

Barbara was the founder and director of the first rural daycare center in Quebec. When she moved to Montreal, she founded and ran another non-profit, community-based child care center and school-age program. Her programs became well known for their multi-age groupings and unique use of space, which empower children and help them learn how to make meaningful choices.

A master’s degree in educational administration from McGill University gives Barbara a firm theoretical foundation, but above all her perspective is practical, realistic, and compassionate, stemming from decades of working with actual children in real situations.

She is a citizen of the U.S. and Canada.

JUDY SKLAR RASMINSKY, co-author of Challenging Behavior in Young Children and Meeting the Challenge, is a freelance writer with special expertise in child care, education, and health. She has lived through the gamut of child care experiences while juggling work and parenthood and has served on the board of directors of two daycare centers, a school-age program, and an elementary school.

Judy has written numerous articles for the American and Canadian Reader's Digest, as well as Working Woman, the Los Angeles Times, Chatelaine, the Toronto Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Montreal Gazette, Ottawa Citizen, and Vancouver Sun; and several of her pieces have been anthologized in college and high school textbooks. She also worked for many years as an editor, researcher, and reader for book publishers in New York, London, and Montreal. In 2004, she won a Blue Pencil Award from the National Association of Government Communicators, a Silver Inkwell Award of Merit from the International Association of Business Communicators, and a Plain Language Award from the National Institutes of Health.

Judy has a B.A. in English from Stanford University and an M.A. in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University.

She is a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors, the National Association of Science Writers, the Professional Writers Association of Canada, the Text and Academic Authors Association, the Authors Guild, and the National Writers Union. She is a citizen of the U.S. and Canada.