The future is unpredictable, but one thing is sure: the challenges we face today—climate change, water scarcity, natural disasters, gun violence, income inequality, racial injustice, housing unaffordability, food insecurity, and inadequate access to healthcare—will intensify as we move deeper into the 21st century.
What role can early childhood education and care serve in helping us to address an uncertain future? This Summer Institute explores how the core values of our field can guide us in preparing for an unpredictable future. Inspired by the sentiment in Robert Fulghum’s Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, this Summer Institute proposes that Everything We Need to Face the Future Comes from Our ECEC Values.
In times of uncertainty, our commitment to ensuring a just and equitable early childhood for all children must remain steadfast. When the future threatens to reshape our world, our shared values can ground us in what all children fundamentally need and deserve.
We invite you to join us as we explore how a commitment to values of Equity, Truth, and Care can support our efforts to resist threats of domination, control, power, racism, white supremacy, climate disaster, and environmental terrorism. Now more than ever, we must double down on what we know constitutes high-quality early childhood education care.
Each day of the institute will begin with a keynote address that centers on one value, followed by a panel discussion of early childhood educators, researchers, and policymakers or advocates. Join us as we recommit to our core values, strengthen our resolve, and build a community of ECEC advocates ready for whatever may be on the horizon.
This year, we kick off each day of the Summer Institute with a brief keynote speaker highlighting one of our three values: Equity, Truth, and Care. Read more about our keynotes in the panel descriptions below.
Our keynote speaker for Day 1 of the 7th Annual Summer Institute is Dr. Rosemarie Allen, President and CEO of the Center for Equity and Excellence. She has served as an educational leader for over 40 years with the mission of ensuring that ALL children have access to high-quality early childhood programs that are developmentally appropriate and culturally sustaining.
Our Summer Institute Day 2 keynote speaker will be Jesse Hagopian, author of Teach Truth. Jesse has been an educator for over 20 years and has been involved with multiple advocacy organizations such as Rethinking Schools, Black Lives Matter at School, and the Zinn Education Project. He also serves as the Director of the Black Education Matters Student Activist Award.
Our Day 3 Keynote Speaker for the 7th Annual Summer Institute is Carol Garboden Murray, DEY National Advisor and Author of Illuminating Care. After many years as an early interventionist, infant, toddler, preschool, and kindergarten teacher, Carol transitioned to her current role as the Executive Director of the Wimpfheimer Nursery School at Vassar College.
After our brief keynote sets the tone for the day, we will transition to a discussion with our invited panelists and moderator.
This panel explores how centering equity in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) serves as a powerful act of resistance against systemic injustice. Through dialogue with educators, researchers, and community advocates, the session will examine the ways equitable practices challenge dominant narratives, disrupt exclusionary systems, and affirm the rights and identities of all children and families. Participants will gain insight into transformative approaches that move beyond inclusion to actively reimagine early learning spaces as sites of social justice and collective empowerment.
Our Founder, President and CEO, Dr. Rosemarie Allen, has served as an educational leader for over 40 years. Her life’s work is centered on ensuring ALL children have access to high-quality early childhood programs that are developmentally appropriate and culturally sustaining. She is currently a professor at the School of Education at Metropolitan State University of Denver. Her classes are focused on ensuring teachers are aware of how issues of equity, power, and justice impact teaching practices. Rosemarie has served in directorship roles with the Colorado Department of Human Services as the Director of the Division of Early Learning and in Youth Corrections. In Early Learning, she oversaw the State’s child care licensing program, the federal
child care assistance program, the redesign of the State’s quality rating and improvement system, the implementation of the State’s professional development plan, and assisted in creating Colorado’s early learning guidelines.
Dr. Allen also serves as the President and CEO of the Institute for Racial Equity & Excellence (IREE), which is the lead agency for ensuring equity in organizations throughout the nation and internationally. In this capacity, she has worked with the United States Department of Education as well as 47 State Departments of Education, the United States Customs and Border Protection, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), Police Officer Standard Training (POST), and numerous police departments, school districts and other organizations providing training on implicit bias, microaggressions, anti-racism, trauma healing practices, and racial equity. IREE is contracted with the State of Colorado to monitor and license early childhood facilities using a model she created, “Culturally Responsive Community-Based Licensing.” Dr. Allen is also on faculty with Georgetown University and the Pyramid Model Consortium and a Professor of Research with the Children’s Equity Project at Arizona State University.
Rosemarie has the distinct honor of being appointed as a “Global Leader,” connecting with world leaders in early childhood across the globe. She is the recipient of the prestigious T. Barry Brazelton Friends of Children Award, sharing this honor with other recipients such as First Ladies Hilary Clinton, Rosalind Carter, and Laura Bush. She has been honored to receive the
MLK Peace Award, the Rosa Parks Diversity Award, and numerous other awards and honors. She earned her B. A. from California State University, Long Beach, Master’s of Education from Lesley University, and Doctorate in Equity and Leadership in Education at the University of Colorado, Denver..
Nancy is professor emerita at Lesley University where she was a teacher educator in child development for more than 30 years. Nancy has written many books and articles on children’s play, their social and emotional development, and the effects of media and technology on young children. She is a critic of current education reforms that promote standardized tests and the privatization of schools. Nancy has received many awards for her leadership and advocacy in peace and early childhood education. In 2012, she co-founded Defending the Early Years, a nonprofit advocating for equitable, quality early education for every young child.
Peter Rawitsch retired five years ago after 42 years of teaching in public schools. He taught 1st grade in upstate New York for 38 years. He has a B.S. in Education from Wheelock College in Early Childhood (1977) and an M.S. in Education from Lesley College in the Integrated Arts in Education (1981). He became a National Board Certified Teacher in Early Childhood in 2013. Four years ago, Peter co-founded Love Our Children NC. As Lead Advocate, he is working on ending exclusionary discipline for 4, 5, 6, and 7-year olds in every county in North Carolina. He serves on the Board of Pastors for NC Children and is a National Advisor for Defending the Early Years.
Jennifer Keys Adair, Ph.D., is a Professor of Early Childhood Education and Director of Dynamic Innovation for Young Children (DIFYC) at The University of Texas at Austin. A trained cultural anthropologist and former preschool teacher, Dr. Adair work to understand the impact of racism and white supremacy on the early schooling experiences of young children. Dr. Adair is a former Young Scholars Fellow with the Foundation for Child Development, a major grant recipient of the Spencer Foundation to study civic action in preschool classrooms, and most recently, a multi-year grant recipient from the Brady Foundation to culturally validate and test the Markers of Agency tool, a capacity-building, culturally flexible agency measurement tool rooted in 10 years of agency research, racial justice, and children’s capabilities. Dr. Adair is the author, along with co-author Dr. Kiyomi Sánchez-Suzuki Colegrove, of the book, Segregation by Experience: Agency, Racism and Early Learning (The University of Chicago Press, 2021), which won the 2021 Council on Anthropology and Education Outstanding Book Award and the 2021-2022 Book Study Award from the High Scope Educational Research Foundation.
As an academic, Dr. Adair has published in numerous journals, including Harvard Educational Review, Teachers College Record, Race, Ethnicity and Education, and Young Children. She teaches courses on qualitative research with young children, the impact of socio-political/cultural factors on development, and a range of early childhood and research methods courses. Dr. Adair currently serves on several editorial and advisory boards and lectures in multiple countries. Jennifer speaks to the public at venues such as SXSW, SXSWedu, and Blackademics about the relationships between agency, racism, parenting, and technology, as well as through public media appearances on CBS, NBC, Washington Post, NPR, New America, Code Switch, Huffington Post, Edweek, and The Conversation.
This panel highlights the importance of teaching honest, age-appropriate truths about race, identity, and history in early childhood settings. Panelists will share strategies for fostering inclusive environments that celebrate differences and promote belonging from the earliest years. By confronting the misconception that diversity is divisive, this discussion will affirm how truth-telling in early education supports empathy, critical thinking, and a more just foundation for an anti-racist future.
Jesse Hagopian has been an educator for over twenty years and taught for over a decade Seattle’s Garfield High School–the site of the historic boycott of the MAP test. Jesse is an editor for the social justice periodical Rethinking Schools, is the co-editor of the books, Black Lives Matter at School, Teaching for Black Lives, Teacher Unions and Social Justice, and is the editor of the book, More Than a Score: The New Uprising Against High-Stakes Testing. Jesse serves as the Director of the Black Education Matters Student Activist Award and is an organizer with the Black Lives Matter at School movement.
Jesse is the recipient of the 2019 “Racial Justice Teacher of the Year” from the NAACP Youth Coalition and the “Social Justice Teacher of the Year” award from Seattle Public School’s Department of Racial Equity. He received the 2012 Abe Keller Foundation award for “excellence and innovation in peace education,” and won the 2013 “Secondary School Teacher of the Year” award and the Special Achievement “Courageous Leadership” award from the Academy of Education Arts and Sciences. In 2015, Jesse received the Seattle/King County NAACP Service Award, was named as an Education Fellow to The Progressive magazine, as well as a “Cultural Freedom Fellow” for the Lannan Foundation for his nationally recognized work in promoting critical thinking and opposing high-stakes testing.
Jesse is an activist, public speaker, and a contributing author to 101 Changemakers: Rebels and Radicals Who Changed US History, Education and Capitalism: Struggles for Learning and Liberation, Teaching When The World Is On Fire (edited by Lisa Delpit), Why We Teach Now (edited by Sonia Nieto), and Strike for the Common Good. Jesse’s essay on the MAP test boycott and the ensuing national uprising against high-stakes testing was published in Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove’s 10th anniversary edition of Voices of a People’s History of the United States.
Jesse’s commentary has been featured on many local and national news programs including, HBO’s “Problem Areas” with Wyatt Cenac, NBC’s “Education Nation,” The PBS News Hour with Gwen Ifill, CNN, Keith Olberman’s Countdown, The Dan Rather Report, Democracy Now!, The Real News Network, Busted Pencils, The Laura Flanders Show, and C-Span’s “Book TV.” Jesse’s written articles on variety of political topics including, education, the Black Lives Matter movement, Haiti, Palestine, and U.S. politics. His written for many national and local publications including, The Nation, Word In Black, Salon.com, Truth Out, Common Dreams, Black Agenda Report, The Progressive, Alternet, the Seattle Education website, and the National Education Association’s Education Votes blog. He has also been a frequent special guest contributor to the Seattle Times op-ed page.
Jesse is also an advocate for the power of sports in youth development and organizes to support athlete activism. Jesse partners with the Coaching Boys Into Men program and Team Up Washington, programs designed to engage high school student athletes in dialog about gender equity, healthy relationships, consent, and ending sexual assault. In addition, Jesse organizes with NFL pro bowler Michael Bennett and other professional athletes who protest injustice. Jesse joined the core organizing team of Athletes for Impact, the voice of athlete activism.
Jesse has been active in the movement for Black lives. In January of 2015, Jesse Hagopian gave the final speech at Seattle’s Martin Luther King Day rally. Not long after, he was pepper-sprayed with out provocation by an officer of the Seattle Police Department. The incident was captured on video by an onlooker. Since then Jesse reached a settlement over the incident with the City of Seattle and used a portion of the proceeds to start the “Black Education Matters Student Activist Award.”
In January, 2013, Jesse helped organize the MAP test boycott that began at Garfield High School, quickly spread to several other Seattle Schools, and helped ignite a national movement against the abuses of standardized testing.
In 2012, Jesse attempted a citizen’s arrest of the Washington State Legislature when they announced cuts of some $2 billion from health and education, as the decision violated the State Constitution and subsequent law mandating a fully funded education system. When Jesse and members of the Social Equity Educators finished reading the charges to a stunned state legislature, Jesse produced a pair of plastic handcuffs and encouraged the legislators to turn themselves in. It was Jesse, however, who left in cuffs and spent the evening in jail. Upon hearing of his arrest, the students at Garfield staged a mass walkout against budget cuts to education that made national headlines.
In 2011, Jesse participated in the Interfaith Peace Builder’s historic first African Heritage delegation that brought 14 African Americans ages 28-70 years old to Israel and Palestine to meet with civil society organizations, human rights groups, and grassroots activists to better understand the conflict.
In 2010, Jesse and his family were in Haiti when the devastating earthquake hit and joined the relief effort in the aftermath. Upon his return home to Seattle, Jesse joined the board of directors of Maha-Lilo—“Many Hands, Light Load”—a Haiti solidarity organization.
In 2006, Jesse served as the campaign manager for Seattle Black Panther founding captain Aaron Dixon’s Green Party bid for U.S. senate with the message of, “Out of war…and into our communities!”
Jesse is a graduate of Seattle’s Garfield High School and Macalester College, and obtained his Master’s degree in teaching at the University of Washington. Jesse and his wife are the proud parents of two young boys.
You can connect with Jesse on Twitter.
Founder and President, Anahsa Consulting
Senior Adviser, Center on Culture, Race & Equity at Bank Street College
For over two decades, Takiema has worked in support of children, programs, and educational systems from her various roles including teacher, teacher educator, parent activist, and executive leader. In 2016 she created Anahsa Consulting to provide professional development for educational professionals and leaders who want to deeply understand and dismantle systems of oppression within formal and informal schooling environments.
In 2019, Takiema founded the Black Lives Matter at School Early Childhood Symposium to provide a professional development experience for adults to better support young Black children to learn and to thrive. In 2021, the Symposium garnered 2000 attendees from across the United States and internationally. The Symposium, and Takiema’s subsequent development of the Journey to Nia program has shone a light on the urgent need to eradicate anti-Black racism and to center Black joy in early childhood.
Takiema holds Master’s degrees in Early Childhood & Elementary Education from Bank Street College of Education, Urban Education Policy from the CUNY Graduate Center, and Leadership from NYU Wagner’s School for Public Service.
Akiea “Ki” Gross (they/them) is an early childhood alchemist, abolitionist, educator and creative practitioner exploring the life-affirming possibilities of political education for little comrades through their innovative pedagogy, Woke Kindergarten, a visionary anti-oppressive early learning ecosystem that supports children & those in community with them in their commitment to liberatory praxis. A former classroom teacher, instructional coach and adjunct professor honored for their unwavering commitment to social justice, Ki was awarded NCTE’s Early Childhood Education Assembly’s 2020 Social Justice Award and has received multiple grants to further develop their resources for young learners. They have served as a keynote speaker, panelist, moderator, workshop facilitator and consultant for a host of universities, companies and organizations, including Harvard University, Teachers College, Bank Street School of Education, Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn Museum, NJPAC, NY and SF MoMA and more.
Their experiences with the carceral state of schooling inspired the creation of #BlackTeachersMatter, Black Teachers Mentor, and @BlackChildrenPlay, a communal, archival photography project exploring Black children’s play as revolutionary praxis. Additionally, Ki founded Sisters Unsigned, an intimate concert series that amplified the voices of queer, trans, and BIPOC independent artists in Brooklyn, NY. They hold an M.A. in Developmental Psychology from Teachers College, an M.S. in Childhood Education/Special Education from Touro College/Deeper Learning Institute, and two B.A.s in Child Development and Psychology from UNC-Chapel Hill. They are currently focused on expanding their offerings through various community projects and literary mediums.
Contact: wakeup@wokekindergarten.org
Fela Barclift, (she/her/hers), MS Ed, is an early childhood educator, leader, mentor, advocate for Black and Brown children, and longtime Bedford-Stuyvesant community member for over 40 years. In her pursuit to developing strong, self-assured, intelligent, and loving Black and Brown children, Fela founded Little Sun People, an early childhood education center in Brooklyn with an Afrocentric and Culturally Responsive curriculum. With an interdisciplinary curriculum that centralizes and honors the historical and current contributions and cultures of people of African descent, children ages 2-5 can express themselves through African dance, drumming, music, martial arts, chess, and play.
In the past 40 years, her commitment and contributions have garnered attention in over 35+ publications, presentations, awards, and interviews. Most recently, Barclift was awarded the David Prize to fully realize a codified curriculum that can be used globally.
This panel explores how early childhood educators can nurture environmental awareness and responsibility in young children through a commitment to care. Panelists will discuss practical strategies for introducing concepts of sustainability and climate care in ways that empower rather than overwhelm. Grounded in hope and action, this session highlights how early education can lay the foundation for lifelong environmental stewardship and climate-conscious citizenship.
Carol Garboden Murray, M.Ed., is the Executive Director of Wimpfheimer Nursery School. Carol holds a NYS Teaching Certificate and a Master’s degree in Early Childhood Development and Early Intervention. She worked directly as an early interventionist, infant, toddler, preschool and kindergarten teacher for many years before becoming a program director and leader in the field. Carol has led campus-based children’s programs and community programs for over 20 years. Carol is the author of more than 30 articles published in professional magazines for early childhood educators and she is also the author of two books, Illuminating Care: The Pedagogy and Practice of Care in Early Childhood Communities (Exchange Press, 2021) and Simple Signing with Young Children (Gryphon House Press, 2007). Carol has served as a program consultant, mentor, and adjunct instructor. She has conducted regional and national workshops for early childhood educators, parents, administrators. She has an interest and expertise in a constructivist approach to education, emergent curriculum development, play, change theory, and care ethics.
Founder and Curriculum Director
Originally a native of Wisconsin, I have worked with young children and their families for over 20 years in a number of ways, including work as a preschool & toddler teacher, an atelierista or studio teacher and as a Curriculum Coordinator for The Clifton School. I have been inspired by the educators of Reggio Emilia, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and many others, who saw education as a fundamental right as well as a catalyst for social change.
I have credits towards my Master’s in Early Childhood Education at Pacific Oaks College. I have a Bachelor of Science in Education from Georgia State University, which includes an endorsement in special education, as well as an Associate in Early Childhood Education from Chattahoochee Technical College with a specialization in Program Administration. I have helped to forge an on-going collaboration with Emory University and Georgia State University, researching the rights of young children and the cultural context of Development Appropriate Practices. I have a unique interest in reflective practices especially as it relates to curriculum planning for young children, the role of documentation in early child care centers, building partnerships with families, creating engaging learning environments and using materials as thinking tools. I’m deeply committed to improving the quality of education accessible to all children and creating a program that is innovative and cultivates a community full of inquiry.
Monica has pursued her love of nature-based education for over two decades. She is the founding director of the Association for Nature-Based Education (ANBE), a nonprofit that offers professional development and community-based programs to cultivate equitable access to nature-based education. As founder/cofounder of three forest and nature preschools in Maryland, and a consultant to countless others, she is grateful to help people nurture relationships with the natural world as an essential aspect of how we approach education. As an author, she shares the benefits of nature-based learning through various publications including an award-winning book, Nature Play Workshop for Families: A Guide to 40+ Outdoor Learning Experiences in All Seasons, coauthored by Karen Madigan (Quarto Press, 2020). Monica is currently writing a book focused on nature-based early childhood education to be published by the National Association for the Education of Young Children in Fall 2025. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Art Education and a master’s degree in Early Childhood Education from Towson University. More recently, Monica completed a fellowship at UMBC in the Maryland Early Childhood Leadership Program (MECLP), in partnership with the Shriver Center at UMASS.
Our annual event brings together early childhood educators and advocates from across the country to develop a thoughtful and dynamic grassroots advocacy platform and action steps that support the whole child, respect child development, and recognize the importance of play so that all children may experience a just, equitable, and quality education and future. Our community comes together to learn from each other, share what is working, and build stronger platforms.
Learn more about the DEY Summer Institute and become a sponsor today!
