Virginia Jean Herrod, better known as Jeanie to her students and their families, has been involved in early childhood education since 1981, when she started teaching in a Pennsylvania Head Start classroom. Ten years later, she relocated to South Carolina, where she continued her work with young children in a military child care center on Fort Jackson. She also has taught at a corporate child care center associated with the local PBS station. Jeanie began writing activity plans for Gryphon House in 1995 and has been included in many of the award-winning GIANT Encyclopedia series of activity books. Her recent work includes collaborations on Story Play by Mary Jo Huff (Gryphon House) and The Complete Daily Curriculum by Pam Schiller and Pat Phipps (Gryphon House).