Founded in 2002 under the leadership of Dr. Donald Pemberton, the University of Florida Lastinger Center for Learning is the brainchild of University of Florida alumni Allen and Delores Lastinger. They saw great potential in making cutting-edge academic research immediately available to academic practitioners.
In alignment with the University of Florida College of Education‘s mission to generate innovations to improve educational outcomes, the Center strives to improve academic practices in Florida and beyond. The organization launched with a small but mighty staff that effectively leveraged the intellectual resources of the University of Florida to provide outsized value to schools and districts. The Lastinger Center quickly saw results improving teacher effectiveness through their innovative approach.
Today, under the leadership of Dr. Philip Poekert, the Lastinger Center’s innovations serve children and teachers in every community in Florida and have expanded both nationally and globally. The remarkable scope of the Lastinger Center’s work and the impact of its collective efforts have drawn state, national, and international recognition and investment.
Each year, we serve more than 500,000 children and 50,000 educators across Florida and the country. Our non-traditional team of more than fifty educators, entrepreneurs, inventors, designers and researchers to design, build and refine programs proven to significantly impact teacher and child outcomes.
public and private funding raised
children reached each year
educators served annually
states engaged in Lastinger innovations
The UF Lastinger Center’s mission is to create equitable educational systems where every child and educator, regardless of circumstances, experiences high quality learning every day to support the achievement of critical milestones in children’s trajectory through school that are predictive of success in life.