Dr. Denisha Jones joined the DEY Advisory Board in 2014 and worked as the Director of Early Childhood Organizing and Co-Director before becoming the Executive Director in 2022. She has a B.S. in Early Childhood Education and a Certificate in Nonprofit Leadership from the University of the District of Columbia, a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from Indiana University, and a J.D. from the University of the District of Columbia. Denisha is an adjunct faculty member in the Art of Teaching Program at Sarah Lawrence College and the School of Education Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Howard University.
Her research interests include organizing activist research projects that examine grassroots movements to achieve racial justice in education, documenting the value of play as a tool for liberation with an emphasis on global approaches to play, and collaborating with parents and educators to foster positive racial, ethnic, and cultural identity development in the early years. Her first co-edited book, Black Lives Matter at School: An Uprising for Educational Justice, was published in December 2020 by Haymarket Books.