Psychologist and researcher Marc Brackett, Ph.D., will deliver the keynote address at Harris County Department of Education’s 37th Annual R.T. Garcia Early Childhood Winter Conference.

Brackett is the founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and a professor in the Child Study Center at Yale University. His research focuses on the role of emotional intelligence in learning, decision-making, creativity, relationships, health, and performance.

He has published over 150 scholarly articles, received numerous awards, and is featured regularly in popular media outlets. Brackett serves on a number of boards, including the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), the nonprofit that founded the field of social and emotional learning (SEL).

Brackett is the lead developer of RULER, a systemic, evidence-based approach to SEL that has been adopted by over 3,500 public, independent, and charter schools across the United States and in 27 other countries.

Brackett also has been the keynote speaker at over 600 conferences around the world, including the White House, U.S. Departments of Education, Justice, and Defense, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, General Electric, Facebook, and Twitter, as well as dozens of education conferences.

Brackett is the author of “Permission to Feel: Unlocking the Power of Emotions to Help our Kids, Ourselves, and our Society Thrive,” which has been translated into 22 languages.

The conference, which typically draws more than 1,000 attendees, will take place from 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. on Saturday, January 28, at the Kingdom Builders’ Center (6011 W. Orem Drive, Houston, Texas 77085).

For more information about the conference, visit www.hcde-texas.org/ECWC. Click here to register. Cost is $85 before December 1, and $95 before January 27. Same-day registrations will be $100.