Mariann Pezzella Winick.

Regretfully, we have learned of the death of Professor Emerita Mariann Pezzella Winick, a long-time active member of ACEI. Winick was an exceptional educator and mentor who taught at Lehman College of the City University of New York from 1970 until her retirement in 1991. Professor Winick passed away on April 14, 2006, after a long struggle with asthma.

As an active member of ACEI she served on the Publications Committee (from 1984-1986 and from 1998-2006), on several other committees, co-wrote the Films/Videos/DVDs column, and was the ACEI United Nations Representative from 1997 to 1998. Among her books were Children and TV I and II (ACEI publications) and The Television Experience: What Children See; she also authored dozens of articles and monographs, and delivered lectures and workshops to academic, professional, and public audiences. Her research and writing covered an array of topics, including Montessori education, aesthetics in education, the teacher as portrayed in literature and film, and film as a medium for learning.

As the television industry began marketing more directly to children in the 1970s, she began a long-term study on the effects of this medium on children's thinking and development. She was a member of the Federal Communications Commission's Advisory Panel for children's television commercials (1976-78) and an invited commentator at the National Association of Broadcasters' National Conference on Children's Television (1975). She earned her International Montessori Certificate at the University of Perugia (Italy), where she later returned as a visiting lecturer, and for many years helped to guide curriculum development and teacher training at the International Montessori School in Rome.

Her passing is a great loss to all of us who knew her as a teacher, friend, and colleague. On behalf of the ACEI community, we extend our deepest sympathies to her family.