Family Handbook 2018-2019

6 The roots of the Mailman Segal Center can be traced to 1972 when Dr. Marilyn Mailman Segal was awarded a four-year, $500,000 grant from the Federal Office of Human Development to produce a 9-part public television series titled, “To Reach a Child,” focusing on the first year of life. Segal established a school for parents as part of the series, which later grew into the Center’s Early Learning Programs. The next ten years recorded tremendous growth in the Center’s history. The Family Center, the precursor to the Mailman Segal Institute, was established in 1975; Dr. Wendy Masi founded the Parent/Child program in 1979; the Family Center Preschool was founded in 1980; the Mailman Family Center building opened its doors to the public in 1981; and the Ft. Lauderdale Oral School, the predecessor to the Baudhuin Preschool, was acquired by NSU in 1983 and moved to the Davie campus. With the early establishment of programs complete, the next twenty years in the Center’s history records groundbreaking work refining and bringing programs and ideas to the local, state, and national communities. In 2002, the Family Center was renamed the “Mailman Segal Institute for Early Childhood Studies” after the Center’s founder, Dr. Marilyn Mailman Segal. In 2003, the Jim & Jan Moran Family Center Village opened, the only demonstration and training facility of its kind in the nation. In 2010, the Center moved to a broader base inclusive of human development and autism across the lifespan through the establishment of three institutes: the Early Childhood Institute, the Autism Institute, and the Family Institute and was renamed the Mailman Segal Center for Human Development to reflect the expanded mission of the center.