OPEN > Reaching All Students > High-End Learners > Setting the Context > Joyce VanTassel-Baska Joyce VanTassel-Baska is the Jody and Layton Smith Professor of Education at the College of William and Mary in Virginia, where she has developed a graduate program and a research and development center in gifted education. Formerly she initiated and directed the Center for Talent Development at Northwestern University. She also served as the state director of gifted programs for Illinois, as a regional director of a gifted service center in the Chicago area, as coordinator of gifted programs for the Toledo, Ohio public school system, and as a teacher of gifted high school students in English and Latin. She has worked as a consultant on gifted education in more than 40 states and for key national groups, including the U.S. Department of Education, National Association of Secondary School Principals, and American Association of School Administrators. She is past president of The Association for the Gifted of the Council for Exceptional Children and a past member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Gifted Children. Dr. VanTassel-Baska has published widely, including five recent books: Content-Based Curriculum for High-Ability Learners (2002) (with Catherine A. Little); Excellence in Educating the Gifted (1998); Developing Verbal Talent (1996) (with Dana Johnson and Linda Boyce); Comprehensive Curriculum for Gifted Learners (1995); and Planning Effective Curriculum for the Gifted (1992). She also has published over 150 monographs, book chapters, and articles in refereed journals, and serves as the editor of Gifted and Talented International. She has received numerous awards for her work, including the State Council of Higher Education in Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award in 1993, the Phi Beta Kappa faculty award in 1995, and the National Association of Gifted Children Distinguished Scholar Award in 1997. Her major research interests are on the talent development process and effective curricular interventions with the gifted. She holds B.A., M.A., M.Ed. and Ed.D. degrees from the University of Toledo.