Joanne F. Foster, Ed.D.

Author of:

• Being Smart about Gifted Education: A Guidebook for Parents and Educators (2nd Edition) (Arizona Book Award Winner, Exceptionality Education Canada Exceptional Book of the Year)
• Cultivating a Gifted Mind

Joanne Foster holds a Master’s degree in Special Education and Adaptive Instruction, and a doctoral degree in Human Development and Applied Psychology, both from the University of Toronto. She has worked in the field of gifted education for 30 years, focusing on ways to encourage and support high-ability learners.

Foster teaches Psychological Foundations of Learning and Development, as well as Gifted Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto. She is also a Gifted Education Consultant, and in this capacity, she works alongside teams of educators within individual districts, boards, and school settings conducting teacher training sessions and providing targeted consultation in strategic programming and best practice. She speaks to parent groups and educators about the complexities and implications of high-level development, facilitates community networking in gifted education, and has written numerous articles on gifted-related issues. Foster is co-author of the award-winning Being Smart about Gifted Children (2005), and the second edition, Being Smart about Gifted Education (2009).