Alison Zimbalist is the PJ Goes to School consultant for the grades K-2 program. Prior to her family’s relocation to suburban Chicago last June, Alison served for three years as the Director of Early Childhood Services at the Macks Center for Jewish Education in Baltimore. There she oversaw the professional development for the 19 Jewish preschools in the greater area and created and ran year-long communities of practice for center directors, assistant directors, teacher-leaders, new teachers, and early childhood educators dedicated to Israel education. Prior to that position, she founded and co-directed a synagogue-based preschool in New York for nine years. For the past two decades, Alison has been steadily writing curriculum for NYTimes.com (serving as the education specialist and education editor for nine years), Scholastic.com, The Jewish Lens, and Shalom Learning, among many other companies. She is a graduate of Emory College (B.A., English and Education) and Emory University (Masters in Education). A St. Louis native, Alison is happy to be back home in the Midwest with her high school sweetheart husband Morris, a congregational rabbi in Long Grove, and their wonderful children, Evelyn (9) and Zach (15).