Edward Zigler received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Texas at Austin in 1958, and came to Yale in 1959. During his 45 years at Yale, he has served as Director of the Child Development Program, Chairman of the Psychology Department, and a member of the Executive Committee of the Child Study Center at the Yale University School of Medicine. He founded and is Emeritus Director of the Edward Zigler Center for Child Development and Social Policy at Yale (formerly the Yale University Bush Center in Child Development and Social Policy), the first center in the nation to combine training in developmental science and public policy. There are now over 40 centers based on Dr Zigler's model in universities throughout the country. As Professor Emeritus, Dr Zigler remains as active as ever in his scholarly and public education endeavors, continuing to research, write about, and speak on topics related to child development, early childhood education, and social policy. In addition to being one of the founders of the field of applied developmental psychology, Dr Zigler's research on the social and cognitive aspects of early childhood development, child care, and early intervention has helped to promote and shape the field's application of research findings to optimizing the lives of young children and their families.

Dr. Zigler has had widespread influence on many national programs and policies. He helped to plan several national projects and policies, including Head Start, Follow Through, the Parent and Child Centers, Early Head Start, the first national Office of Child Care, the national Child Development Associate (CDA) certification program, the Family and Medical Leave Act. He also created the School of the 21st Century, which has been adopted by more than 1,300 schools in 20 states, and cofounded the CoZi model, which is a combination of Dr James P. Comer's School Development Program and Zigler's 21st Century School model. He is an advisor to numerou.