Steffennbsp;Saifer has served as director of the Child and Family Program at Education Northwest since 2000 and as an adjunct faculty member at Portland State University since 1996, where he has taught graduate courses in education. His areas of work and expertise include cultural-historical activity theory, the role of play in human development, and school-family partnerships. Saifer has worked extensively in Russia and Eastern Europe, assisting in education curricula reform. He helped implement a graduate program in early childhood development at BRAC University in Dhaka, Bangladesh (co-funded by the Open Society Foundation). He is the author or co-author of numerous publications… including Practical Solutions to Practically Every Problem: The Early Childhood Teacher's Manual (2003, Redleaf Press), and Education and the Culture of Democracy: Early Childhood Practice (1996, Open Society Institute).