Arlitt Staff

Administrators

Victoria Carr

School of Education, Early Childhood Education / Developmental & Learning Sciences; Affiliate Faculty, School of Environment & Sustainability, CECH Arlitt Center

2150H EDWARDS 1 Edwards Center

513-556-3805

carrvw@ucmail.uc.edu

Victoria Carr, Ed.D., is a Professor of Early Childhood Education / Developmental and Learning Sciences in the School of Education and an affiliate faculty member in the UC School of Environment and Sustainability at the University of Cincinnati. She served in leadership roles for the Arlitt Center for Education, Research, and Sustainability from 1995 to 2025 and remains connected to the center as a faculty affiliate.

Dr. Carr is co-editor-in-chief for Children, Youth and Environments, a journal that publishes research articles and reports from the field on environments where children and youth live, learn, work, and play. She serves on the editorial review board for the Journal of Research in Childhood Education, as a consulting editor for the International Journal of Early Childhood Environmental Education, and is an active member of the Transnational Dialogues on Early Childhood Education for Sustainability (ECEfS).

She co-chairs the Leave No Child Inside Collaborative of Cincinnati, co-founded the Cincinnati Nature Playscape Initiative, and implemented the Arlitt Professional Educator Learning Series. She served for several years on Cincinnati Nature Center's Board of Directors, working closely with its Applied Learning Committee. She served as the faculty advisor for the UC Equestrian Team from 2006 to 2026.

Dr. Carr conducts research and publishes books and articles on ECEfS, children and nature, teacher efficacy, and challenging behaviors in early childhood settings. She has generated over $27M in funding related to programming and research in early childhood education during her UC career. The National Science Foundation supported her research on informal science learning in playscapes (2011-2019), and she has had multiple projects funded by the PNC Foundation. She assists with landscape design, provides programming consultation, and conducts research on nature-focused playgrounds, including the Cincinnati Nature Center Playscape (2011), the Arlitt Playscape (2012), a community-built school playground in Papua New Guinea (2015), and several Head Start and child care center playscapes (2016-present).

View Full Profile

Mary Elizabeth Wright

Director of Children's Programs, CECH Arlitt Center

1159 EDWARDS 1 Edwards Center

513-556-3812

wrightme@ucmail.uc.edu

Mary Beth Wright has been in the field of early childhood education over 18 years. She began her career as a preschool teacher at the Arlitt Child Development Center and has served as the Director of the lab school since 2011. Mary Beth has taught courses for the University of Cincinnati ECE program and worked on several grants and special projects including the writing of Arlitt Instructional Media materials and supporting the coordination of NSF funded research projects. She has presented at international, state, and local conferences, has been featured in ECE media programming, and has served on boards dedicated to advancing and supporting the field of ECE.

View Full Profile