Barbara Swicord is president and chief executive officer of Summer Institute for the Gifted (SIG), a position she has held since 2007. Swicord is responsible for all programs and operations, including curriculum design, program development and evaluation, and campus relationships.

When she joined the company as vice president of academics in 2000, Swicord was responsible for the development and implementation of the curriculum for the residential, day and Saturday programs for gifted students in grades K-11. She has more than 30 years experience working in gifted education.

In addition to her role at SIG, Swicord serves as executive director and trustee of the National Society for the Gifted and Talented, a non-for-profit 501(c)(3) foundation created to honor and encourage gifted and talented children and youth. She was founder and three-term president of the New Jersey Association for Gifted Children, a charitable advocacy organization, and co-founder and program director for the Intermountain Center for Gifted Education, a non-profit educational corporation in Salt Lake City, Utah.

From 1997 to 2000, Swicord worked for the Hunterdon County Educational Services Commission in Flemington, N.J., having held the position of director of the ESC School at Kingston, curriculum supervisor and creator/coordinator of the POP Invention Competition. And from 1987 to 1997, Swicord was the supervisor of gifted and talented programs in East Orange, N.J., responsible for identifying gifted students, staff development and establishing district wide programs. Her involvement in gifted education started in 1975 as a scorer for Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking in Athens, Ga.

Swicord, a member of the National Association for Gifted Children since 1976, was the founding president and trustee for the New Jersey Association for Gifted Children from 1997 to 2007. She earned a master's degree in gifted education/educational psychology from the University of Georgia and a bachelor'sdegree in early childhood education from Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia. She is pursuing an education doctorate in administration, supervision and curriculum at Rutgers University and should graduate by year end.

Swicord lives in Stamford, Conn. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, exercising and spending time with her husband and adult son, Miles.