Conceptual Frameworks for Giftedness and Talent Development

Tracy L. Cross, Ph.D., holds an endowed chair, Jody and Layton Smith Professor of Psychology and Gifted Education, and is the executive director of the Center for Gifted Education and the Institute for Research on the Suicide of Gifted Students at William & Mary.Paula Olszewski-Kubilius is currently the director of the Center for Talent Development at Northwestern University. She has more than 24 years of experience designing and conducting educational programs for learners of all ages including summer programs, weekend programs, distance learning programs, programs for underrepresented gifted students, as well as workshops for parents and teachers. She is active and has had leadership positions in national- and state-level advocacy organizations for gifted children. She was the recipient of the Early Scholar Award from the National Association of Gifted Children in 1987 and selected as the Esther Katz Rosen lecturer in 1997 by the American Psychological Foundation. She has conducted research and published more than 80 articles and book chapters on issues of talent development, particularly the effects of accelerated educational programs and the needs of special populations of gifted children She recently served as the editor of Gifted Child Quarterly and formerly was a coeditor of the Journal of Secondary Gifted Education. She has served on the editorial advisory board of the Journal for the Education of the Gifted, and Gifted Child International, and was a consulting editor for Roeper Review. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy and currently is a member of the boards of the National Association for Gifted Children and the Illinois Association for Gifted Children.