Our Team

Education

PhD, University of California, Berkeley

Professional Interests

Asset-based education and intersections of learning and community for students with disabilities; family and professional partnerships for early childhood; evidence-based practices for language and literacy development, specifically dialogic reading

Bio

Urbani is the director of the Early Childhood Special Education Program and is the recipient of the endowed Holland Professorship in Early Childhood Education. She was the founding director of Great Expectations Inclusive Preschool, in collaboration with the Marin County Office of Education and Lifehouse Agency. Urbani began her career as an educator at the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf, where she taught across grade levels for 12 years.  Her recent publications, co-authored with graduate students, focus on classroom literacy practices that center multicultural education and how the pandemic exacerbated pre-existing inequities for young children with disabilities and their families. Her research examines pre- and in-service teacher development for the academic achievement of students with disabilities. She has presented internationally on topics of teacher education and special education.