Exceptional Emerging Leaders 2015

I am a past Head Start parent from 1990 through 1994. As a past Head Start parent of four children, I served in many capacities that included: Classroom Aide, Kitchen Aide, Center Chairperson, Policy Committee Chairperson, 2nd Vice-Chairperson of Policy Council, Michigan Head Start Parent Representative, and a Board Member of the Michigan Head Start Association. Throughout my years as a parent volunteer, I was also afforded the opportunity to receive my CDA credential.

After my three years of service as a parent volunteer, I was hired as a Teacher Assistant II due to having a high school diploma and CDA credential. I became a Lead Teacher after two weeks of employment and taught as a Lead Teacher in a part-day setting, as well as a Full Day setting. I taught for six years and when I completed my Associate's degree at Wayne County Community College, I became a Family Service Worker and earned my Family Service Worker credential. I then completed my Bachelor Degree in Social Work with high honors along with a certificate in Addiction Studies and Community Leadership at Madonna University. I was promoted to Parent Involvement/Program Governance Specialist , which included doing Fatherhood Outreach in October 2012. I am currently the Fatherhood Outreach Worker as of October 2014.

Throughout my experiences in Head Start, my passion has been and continues to be to service our Head Start parents to the best of my ability, so that they can become the best that they can be for themselves and their families. I continue to participate and volunteer in the community in which I live and work to promote the importance of Head Start. I am also looking forward to enrolling in a Master in Social Work in the near future.

My mission in the field of early childhood is to enhance the quality of care for children and their families by providing quality trainings and coursework that is affordable, engaging, fun, and accessible. As a field, we need to be diligent in providing high-quality care for children and our most vulnerable infants by guiding teachers on the importance of understanding current brain research, benefits of learning through play, utilizing observations and assessments to be intentional in our individualization of goals for children. I simply can't ignore that we have evolved in our understanding of how the brain learns and how we acquire knowledge. Understandably, we must also evolve in our teaching habits to reflect this knowledge.

"If a child can't learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn." — Ignacio Estrada

I passionately commit to serve young children and families in underserved communities and act on compelling causes that make significant positive change in the world — to support the development and growth of families, one individual at a time.

I strive to be an authentic and visionary leader by dedicating my professional career and development to do the following:

• Be a lifelong learner
• Reflect on feedback
• Demonstrate high integrity, ethical standards, and trust
• Serve as a coach and mentor
• Measure success and celebrate; embrace opportunities for improvement

In order to succeed in addressing the needs of families, I will collaborate with my peers and community partners and treat them with honor, encouragement, respect, and love.

My mission is to provide the children in my class with a secure environment, which assists all the children to become self-confident, capable learners. I believe that young children are capable of incredible things! My classroom is a place where all children have the opportunity to show their strengths and talents while building upon their unique differences. I believe that learning should be fun, exciting, and challenging. Through the Project Approach and hands-on, developmentally appropriate learning experiences, I do my part to encourage and motivate each child to achieve at their highest level and develop into life-long learners.

My mission is to work in partnership with others to ensure that all children have the opportunity to thrive and reach their optimum potential.

With my passion of being a life-long learner, it is my mission to engage, foster, and inspire others to expand upon their knowledge of developmentally appropriate practices within early childhood education. Further, as an advocate of quality care and education for young children, I believe it is my duty to not only provide education to those caring for children on a daily basis, but also those who are in a position to make policy changes.

When I was in elementary school my mother started a small family child care in our modest home, not realizing that she was setting the foundation for my future. I joyfully welcomed the babies, toddlers, and preschoolers who filled our home for the rest of my school days. Helping my mother care for those children developed an appreciation in me for children's adaptability and their need for structure, which inspired me to major in psychology at California State University, Los Angeles and, later, to study children's resiliency while working on my doctorate in developmental psychology at the University of Southern California.

Today, I am proud to serve as Senior Vice President of Programs for LAUP. My goal in this role is to continue to strengthen and validate the work of quality coaching, professional development, and early care and education services with strong data and evaluation in order to demonstrate the powerful and enduring impacts of quality early education. My mission is to do everything I can to ensure that the 600,000 infants, toddlers, and preschool-age children who live in Los Angeles County each year receive the highest level of quality in care and early learning opportunities.

Whether leading my team, advocating on Capitol Hill, or educating someone in my community about the importance of quality early learning, I will do everything within my power to ensure children have access to the opportunities they deserve.

• I will work for impact. — I want this one life I'm given to have an impact. I am at my best when I am working hard and at something greater than myself.

• I will strive to stretch myself. — I value the expertise and experiences of those around me. I view learning from others and my own mistakes and successes as a constant.

• I will innovate. — Creative thinking comes from all levels of an organization or field. I work to create teams that value those voices and, in doing so, solve problems creatively. Where technology is a tool to help us get there, I will push forward.

• I will collaborate. — In child-focused work we are not in competition; every individual or organization has its own niche or core focus, but we are all in it together for a common goal.

• I will commit to balance. — I contribute my best and most creative work when my body, mind, and soul are refueled daily.

• I will communicate. — I believe there is great power in how we share our collective voice. How we message and package our work has a tremendous impact on how we influence our stakeholders. It also has great power in unifying us around our cause.

To use my gifts of intelligence, creativity, and optimism to serve as a strong and thoughtful leader, live a balanced and happy life, apply ethical and moral principles to my actions, and learn and grow from my mistakes to make a meaningful difference in my community.

My mission is to live an inspired, purposeful life that inspires others and leaves the world a better place for my children. I chose to work in early learning system building because I have the opportunity maximize my impact on children and families and the future of our community, country, and globally.

My goals:

1. To continue to grow personally and professionally. I believe in life-long learning and am inspired by big ideas.

2. To live with balance. I believe I am best when I am fulfilled personally and professionally.

3. To lead. I believe I have a lot to offer the world and I want to inspire and innovate.

4. To live with integrity. I believe that leaders must act ethically and those who are often unable to speak for themselves including young children depend most on ethical leadership and systems with integrity.

5. To always work for social justice. I believe that a world with oppression and inequality keeps latent our greatest potential.

6. To continue to increase my awareness of my own bias and cultural lens. I believe that I will be most effective when I am aware of how my worldview and experiences influence my actions.

7. To be creative and innovative. I believe that taking risks and sharing ideas is the best way to find answers and create systems.

My mission as a professional in the field of Early Childhood Care and Education is to promote access to high-quality care and education for all children, successful relationships between stakeholders, and most importantly, to always be an advocate for children and families, no matter what my position in the field. Promoting access to high-quality care and education was very important to me as a teacher for the children in my classroom, who were always diverse and came from many different backgrounds and life experiences.

That ideal translated to my role in management as an Assistant Director and Director as well. While I valued my job and the growing impact I was able to make by providing quality care and education to children and families as I transitioned from a teacher to a Director, I realized that I could be making an even bigger impact by accepting a position with the Maryland State Department of Education.

As a Quality Assurance Specialist, I am able to encourage and support all licensed programs serving children birth through 12 in my region to commit to this same pathway of high-quality and continuous quality improvement. In turn, all the families and children attending each of these programs are able to benefit and receive quality care and education!

My personal philosophy towards success for all children is that it takes a village. This sense of community between the stakeholders that are invested in the lives of children is crucial in determining their success as individuals. I consider the stakeholders to be community partners (local, state, and national), families (any individuals responsible for children), and, of course, the children themselves. Community partners could include teachers, hygiene and mental health professionals, child care resource and referral centers, and department of education representatives, to name a few. I believe that in order for children of all abilities and diverse backgrounds to be set up for success, and have equal access to those opportunities, collaboration between all stakeholders is not only vital, but necessary. It is because of this philosophy, that I am a member of county Early Childhood Advisory Councils, School Readiness Councils, and our State Public Policy Committee, in addition to other children's advocacy groups.

In summary, I would like to share with you three quotes that inspire my mission and philosophy, and truly encompass the passion I have for making a difference in the lives of children and this field:

"Children are not a distraction from more important work. They are THE MOST important work." — C.S. Lewis

"I am enough of a realist to understand that I can't reach every child, but I am more of an optimist to get up every morning and try." — Unknown

"When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionably." — Walt Disney

My mission is to engage actively in practices that contribute in a material way to early childhood education, with a goal to improve teaching pedagogy that promotes children's enjoyment and success in school and in life. I believe in continued and thoughtful life-long learning and, most of all, the pursuit of opportunities that foster new learning to advance teaching practices. To promote these learning experiences, I model these behaviors through personalized learning, inquiry, collaboration, research, and scholarship.

Preparing early childhood teachers is serious and important work. Teachers face unprecedented challenges in meeting the unique needs of young children. It is my responsibility to develop skillful, knowledgeable, and culturally and linguistically responsive teachers who are committed to providing high-quality early care and education and who promote inclusion in their programs of children with disabilities. The greatest challenge facing early childhood teachers today is integrating the separate elements of their college curricula into teaching practices targeted for classroom success.

Student teachers take courses in research, theory, and practice, but in real life, these disciplines do not occur separately. For example, Head Start teachers are required to fit their practices into federal guidelines that are part of national reform. In response to this requirement, Head Start teachers need to infuse school readiness goals into the curriculum and strategically support home language development. It is evident to those in the field that there is a need to help student teachers better understand the planning process to create effective opportunities for children to learn on a developmental continuum.

Furthermore, teachers need practical training in the use of feedback from assessments to devise and implement effective instructional strategies. In light of the fragmented nature of teachers' college experiences, my teaching philosophy is grounded in the need to build an integrated framework that unites all of the disparate elements in a way that provides a strong foundation and a solid teaching approach. I believe teachers learn best when they undergo a transformative inquiry model that promotes ownership of learning. To establish critical thinking and inquiry in early childhood courses, I create a framework that incorporates dissemination tasks, personalized projects based on the student's individual questions, reflection assignments, and presentations that incorporate issues on diversity, special education, social justice, and discussions on implications on a systems approach (birth through higher education landscape).

My goal is for student teachers to feel competent and confident by owning their learning accomplishments and strategizing next steps for continuing their scholarship. Children and families are my community. I value what each child, family, and teacher bring to my life and strive to serve them with respect and appreciation. I regularly collaborate with teachers, families, and administrators to make learning meaningful, engaging, interesting, and focused on quality and enjoyable learning experiences. I do this because I believe in the importance of systems and infrastructure to support the design of thoughtful and responsive learning environments and quality services for children and families. All of this stems from explicit and progressive dialogue focused on the benefits of multilingualism, the importance of understanding who we are (teachers, families, staff, our community) and how we can collaborate in order to make this world significantly better.

Through personal accountability, leadership by example, and continual learning and growth, I strive to support teachers, young children, and families through encouragement, acceptance, individualization, and confidence building. I will strive for nothing less than excellence and will have the same expectations for all of the children and teachers entrusted to my leadership.

I believe that high-quality early learning experiences should be the norm of childhood, not the exception, and I believe the key to achieving this goal is in investing in the teachers, classrooms, and administrative systems that make up our early learning programs. I seek to shift our societal thinking about educators away from conceptions of childcare workers and babysitters, and toward a view of educators as early learning and developmental professionals.

I seek to create systems for change that result in sustainable growth for early learning programs, helping early learning professionals see the way their beliefs about children, their assumptions about early childhood education, and their systems for thinking and practice either help or hinder them in their early learning efforts. I seek to build structures for training and support that enable early learning professionals to operate at their highest potential, providing them access to resources and tools that improve their practice and empower them to make a difference for the children and families they serve.

I seek to maintain a balance in my professional, personal, and family life, recognizing that I am most effective when I have tended to the needs of each area. I believe that I am able to make my best contributions when I offer them from a place of fullness and health, and I believe that I can make my strongest impact by contributing in a way that enables me to maintain a sustainable level of engagement. I seek to achieve this balance in myself, as well as to support others to achieve it.

It's been said that, "getting the most out of life isn't about how much you keep for yourself, but how much you pour into others." My professional goals are guided by a mission to pour into others. It is my intention to use my education and experience in staff development to help unlock the unrealized potential and talents in those I encounter and work with each day.

Through motivation, encouragement, and consistent support, I believe I can help others expand to new career heights and achieve their aspirations. I also purpose to remind others that the only constant in life is change. Details change, people change, circumstances change. Yet through change we are given opportunities for growth and development. Change is where unrealized possibilities exist. I have a keen ability to adapt to change. This is because I have a strong sense of who I am, what I am, and what I value. My aim is to pour that same sense of identity and value into others. As a life-long educator who cares about the triggers that inspire people to achieve, I realize that "getting the most out of life" isn't about how much I keep for myself — it's about pouring into others.

I pouted in the back seat of my parent's car after preschool. It was so unfair! All I had done was pinched a girl in class. Before I knew it, my teacher called my parents to pick me up. I listened quietly as the fight ensued. It always started off this way. First voices in English and then suddenly and abruptly the words would change their sounds. Before long both Chinese and Portuguese filled my eardrums. I was the only one in the car who could understand both languages, and to my glee, their ideas of what to do with me were in direct opposition. I have been negotiating culture since the day I was born. In a household with a Chinese mother and a Portuguese father, it was an unavoidable fact.

As a child I spent never-ending hours explaining to my peers and relatives the complexity of my life, how things were decided, and how values and opinions were negotiated. As an adult, this passion and curiosity regarding the complexities of culture and how it influences our lives has stayed with me. This passion permeates not only my teaching practices in my own preschool setting, but also my research and service to non-profits.

The Henry Frost Children's Program: Developing an Eclectic Model. We opened The Henry Frost Children's Program in 2010. Our program is committed to valuing individual differences; we actively include children and families from a variety of ethnic, family, religious, and cultural backgrounds. We believe that it is only by providing and supporting diversity within our program that we can enable children to value the richness and importance of a multicultural experience and world. At the Henry Frost Children's Program, we do not subscribe to one philosophy of early education. Our staff has been trained in the teachings of Reggio Emilia, Maria Montessori, John Dewey, Asian early education philosophy, and the Eliot-Pearson developmental approach. Rather than choosing to subscribe to one technique, we have decided to choose the best from all of these early education pioneers to create the Henry Frost Children's Program. This unique and holistic approach to early education is constantly influenced by current research and practice. Our teachers and students are equally challenged and find deep joy in learning.

Research on Behavior Management in Preschool Across Cultures. How do teachers perceive behavioral control styles in preschool classrooms? How are the behavioral control styles indications of larger cultural goals of development? How are they similar and different across a variety of cultural contexts? These questions have driven my research for over ten years. My larger perspective is informed by cultural theorists, including those who adopt a more ethnographic approach (LeVine, Rogoff, Shweder) and those who adopt a more experimental approach (Kitayama, Markus).

I have had the unique opportunity to study preschool education in Beijing, Lijiang, Hong Kong, London, Taipei, Kyoto, Tokyo, and Newfoundland. My research in preschools consists of qualitative (field notes and filming) and quantitative (questionnaires and structured interviews) data collection. The work is largely ethnographic, so I am a participant-observer in all of the preschool classrooms for 3-6 months. My main finding is that there are cultural responses to misbehavior that reflect larger philosophical differences: American teachers exhibit democratic and authoritative responses, Japanese teachers are more likely to select indirect (teacher authority is muted) and contextually oriented responses, and Chinese teachers are more likely to select evaluative and autocratic responses.

The data collected during this time has led to anecdotal reports in two books, Children's Play and Pathways to Behavior Management. This research has enabled me to give multiple lectures, attend numerous conferences (e.g. SRCD, AERA, ISSBD), and teach my own undergraduate course, Preschool Across Cultures, at Tufts University. Most importantly, the research has also informed both my private consulting business, specializing in early education settings, as well as my preschool. I firmly believe that the integration between research and practice is critical for improving early education.

Working with Families with Adopted Children from China. My second area of research concerns the ethnic identity of children adopted from China, as well as potential supports for ethnic socialization. I have found through an extensive literature review that there are three major challenges for this population: 1) children's ability to develop a healthy understanding of their birth culture; 2) children's ability to relate/connect to their adoptive parents, despite differences in phenotypic characteristics; and 3) children's ability to develop coping mechanisms when confronted with teasing or negative comments from others.

To address these challenges, I developed a Chinese socialization program called Adoption Clubhouse for transracially adopted Chinese children and their families. The program seeks to address issues such as abandonment, identity development, and developmental, social and emotional delays. The solutions are based on healthy child-centered models and on whole family involvement. For the past 15 years, I have worked with over 60 families in the Boston area with children ages 3 to 21. In addition, I have served as the faculty advisor for a Chinese Big Sibling program at Tufts University. My work with these adoptive families resulted in the inception of the Adoption and Development Project at Tufts University and an upcoming publication with the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute.

Outreach in Educational Contexts and Non-Profits. In addition to my research projects, I also have experience consulting in educational contexts. One evaluation project at Tufts University involved Prof. Diane Souvaine's National Science Foundation (NSF) funded project, "Discrete Math Workshop Training for K-12 Teachers." I designed and implemented program evaluations including pre- and post-test data, daily feedback reports, in-session observations, and group interviews. The evaluation reports influenced the workshop on a daily basis and provided the teaching staff valuable feedback for program improvement. The data was successfully presented to NSF and the Massachusetts Department of Education to secure further funding for the project. I have also been hired by several preschools to provide in-service training, NAEYC accreditation support to teachers, and to observe and document classroom settings, as well as to provide presentations to local parenting groups.

Finally, I proudly serve on the board of Families with Children from China and Yunnan Kids International. On these non-profit boards, we work hard to serve children in orphanages. This past year Yunnan Kids International raised over $120,000.00 to support the design and development of a natural play garden for an orphanage in Kunming, China. I personally oversaw the playground development, as well as lead fundraising efforts. Through all of these contexts, roles, and opportunities, the goal is the same: to serve all learners. I believe that we are all life-long learners with so much to offer each other and the world.

My journey into teaching probably began in earnest in high school, when I learned about and fell in love with the Reggio Emilia Approach to early care and education. Since my mother was an early childhood professional, I grew up hearing about a variety of best practices to educate young children and the Reggio Emilia approach was immediately my favorite. I appreciated the attention the Italians dedicated to the environment or "third teacher" in the classroom, and I connected easily to the idea of children having a "hundred languages" to express themselves.

With my interest in the Reggio Emilia approach firmly established and my passion for education clear in my mind, I started college with the goal of deepening my knowledge in the field of education and teaching. I majored in Psychology and minored in Education in order to better prepare myself to work with students, teachers, and researchers. I created a new study abroad program so I could actually go to Reggio Emilia, Italy, and see their approach in-person. The Reggio philosophy was a lens I brought to all of my education work at Bryn Mawr and continue to use every day working with teachers and young children.

After finishing my undergraduate education, I decided I wanted to further my knowledge of global education and ways to create global learning experiences for young children using technology. After living and studying abroad, I realized that there was a great deal of untapped potential for collaboration and sharing among teachers and students of all ages and I wanted to be part of creating that exchange of knowledge and global relationships. These interests led me to start a master's program at American University in International Training and Education. Among other things, I took courses in training design, traveled to see schools in Nigeria, and designed a website for global collaboration in early childhood using technology (https://globalearlyed.wordpress.com/), all of which have affected the teacher I am today.

I would describe myself as a creative and dedicated educator who brings a global lens, is passionate about young children, and is excited to find ways to integrate technology into the classroom and the curriculum in developmentally appropriate and meaningful ways. I want to inspire students to think outside the box and imagine ways to use technology for innovation and collaboration. I think it is valuable to explore and experiment with tools and invite students to guide us in discovering new ideas for using technology. For example, a few years ago I asked students to help me create a map of their school community using Prezi. Although this is a tool often used by adults to make presentations, when it is up on an interactive board it becomes easy for younger students to manipulate and engage with it together. Currently, I have students coming up with ideas for using Wonder Workshop robots (https://www.makewonder.com/) to help our school. During a recent snowstorm, kindergarten students had a chance to practice their coding skills while trying to help the robot clear snow (cotton balls) from pathways they had created in a city in their dramatic play area. My students are comfortable documenting their learning with Google Glass, creating e-books to share their discoveries with families and partner classes, working with me to make a movie about a unit they are studying.

Our goal is to engage in creative play and use technology as a tool to support our learning and imaginations. I want to empower my students to be creators instead of consumers of technology and I want to help my students see how technology can be used as a tool to enhance learning, facilitate communication, and build global relationships. This is why I am currently facilitating a partnership between each of the thirteen Pre-K to second grade classes I work with and other classes, most of which reside in other countries. Connecting my young students to students on five different continents has become a powerful way to show them that technology can be used as a tool to build relationships and that while geography may separate us, we can find numerous learning opportunities and points of understanding between our classes.

I believe great teaching involves helping your students to be documenters, creators, and collaborators while also working to constantly learn, grow, and change as a teacher leader myself. Part of that growth and learning means sharing what I have discovered and working to be a resource for other educators. I strive to do this through my participation in digital chats and communities on various social networks, blogging about technology tools (http://mpowerstech.edublogs.org/category/blog/tech-tips-blog/), working on the board for the International Society for Technology in Education Early Learning Network, presenting at conferences both locally and globally, and contributing to resources like Technology and Digital Media in the Early Years.

I believe great teaching is responsive and allows children to use a diversity of mediums and modes to express their hundreds of languages. To be an emerging leader, you need to help create a close, safe community where students feel they can grow and are motivated to learn without fear of failure or sharing their ideas and you need to be willing to courageously fail yourself in order to keep growing and learning as an educator, constantly striving to do more and do better.

My current focus is to influence early learning professionals working with young children, in the importance of providing an environment that is nurturing, candid, respectful and prepared according to children’s individuality, and allowing them to independently investigate and discover their own knowledge, and how this groundwork will impact the development of their brain.

In my line of work I am privileged to touch many teachers of young children at a supporting, mentoring and training level, and I use these opportunities to share the research in the subject with the goal of provoking these professionals to do intentional and meaningful work with the children they teach, understanding that the experiences they live, positive and negative, shape the citizen they will become, and the society they will run, but most importantly, the quality of childhood they get to enjoy.

Marian lives by her developmental principles. By this she means that she believes that if you want to teach children to have compassion, you have to practice compassion. If you want your teaching to be authentic, you have to behave with integrity. Marian believes that we cannot ask our early years workforce to teach children about equality if they themselves are treated unfairly at work by being denied fair terms and conditions. Most of all Marian believes that the story of the Little Red Hen is the story of early years. When no one wants to help, we have to do for ourselves.

I value my remarkable professional intuition to acknowledge innovative strategies and the priceless gifts of care and education child care professionals contribute each day to children, families, and the field. In each interaction with child care professionals, during professional development workshops or otherwise, I strive to connect and support them to ensure the message is conveyed of how vital their role is in the life of a young child. To treasure above all else an emotionally secure and physically safe environment for young children to begin their life-long embrace of curiosity and learning through relationships by cultivating the spirit of nurturance, compassion, individual influence, and self-acceptance. Accordingly, I will live each day exhibiting the mantra "interactions lead to relationships; relationships lead to learning."