This week, the University of Nebraska announced the creation of the Buffet Early Childhood Institute, a university-wide, multidisciplinary research, education, outreach, and policy center designed to help transform the approach to early childhood development and education in Nebraska and across the nation.
The new institute’s goals are twofold: to influence public policy in immediate, practical ways and to use Nebraska as a laboratory to find and scale up successes in the field. NU is now conducting a national search for its founding executive director; a hire is expected later this year.
The institute is named for philanthropist Susie Buffet, daughter of billionaire investor Warren Buffet and a longtime donor supporting early childhood initiatives in Nebraska and nationally. Per Susie Buffet’s request, the amount of her gift has not been publicly disclosed. Annual support provided by her founding gift will be more than matched by university, private, and federal sources to leverage an investment greater than a $100 million endowment, said university President James B. Milliken.