The Early Childhood & Families Speaker Series, co-sponsored by the Early Childhood Education and Family Studies (ECEFS) certificate program and the Penn Early Childhood and Family Research Center (PECF), will open its 2025–2026 season this fall with a talk by Dr. Allyson Mackey, associate professor of psychology at Penn. Dr. Mackey will present a talk titled “Children’s Brain Plasticity: Implications for Learning and Development.”