WKU News

WKU’s College of Education and Behavioral Sciences is proud to announce the appointment of a new Executive Director for the esteemed Technical Training and Assistance Services (T/TAS) unit. Dr. Amy Hood, will lead the department in its mission to be leading provider of comprehensive Head Start technical assistance and professional development training in all program content areas for the Head Start, Early Head Start, childcare, and human services communities.

Hood is an WKU alumna, earning her Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Early Childhood Education in 1992. She earned her bachelors at Murray State University and her Doctorate in Child and Youth Studies at Nova Southeastern University.

Hood has been Interim Director the WKU Campus Child Card (WKUCCC) unit of T/TAS for the past year. She has worked in various roles within T/TAS since 1988, including her start as a preschool Head Start teacher, establishing the Early Head Start at WKUCCC, Infant/Toddler Specialist, and most recently as Director of the Family Child Care Network of Kentucky and Infant & Toddler Specialist. In her Interim Director role, her job includes oversight of the Head Start, Early Head Start, and Child Care programs and hiring and training staff. 

T/TAS' training and consulting group offers a wide range of high-quality, responsive, and cost-effective on-site and on-line training, including pre-service and in-service workshops for local programs or clusters; program governance training; training for program leadership, policy councils, boards, and professional associations. Highly qualified specialists with extensive real-world experience provide consultation in program design and management, education and child development services, parent, family and community engagement, health services, fiscal and human resources management, and other related topics. Staff are also available to conduct research, evaluation, and monitoring, facilitate strategic and succession planning, and write or edit grant applications and proposals for local organizations and associations. 

T/TAS operates the statewide Family Child Care Network (FCCN) established in 2021 to offer high quality technical assistance and training to assist small businesses that are regulated as Family Child Care Homes.  This includes recruiting new homes to increase the opportunity and access to childcare and ensure that children are cared for in a safe, healthy environment while growing and learning and becoming school ready. Since the inception of the FCCN-KY, there has been an increase of 170 homes in KY.  

T/TAS also operates local Head Start, an Early Head Start, and childcare program serving children birth to 5-years old and their families at the Colleen B. Mendel Child Care Center located in Jones Jaggers Hall on the WKU campus, and at the Bryant Way development of the Bowling Green Housing Authority. Childcare services incorporate the Head Start philosophy of comprehensive services and family engagement in children's education into its Head Start, Early Head Start, subsidized and fee-based child development programs. 

Hood assumed her new duties on May 22, 2023.

For more information about T/TAS, please visit https://orgs.wku.edu/ttas/ or call 270-745-4041.