Featured Speakers

Rosemarie Allen, Ph.D.

Rosemarie Allen has served as a leader in early childhood education for nearly 40 years. Her life’s work is
centered on ensuring children have access to high quality early childhood programs that are
developmentally and culturally appropriate. She is currently an Associate Professor in the School of
Education at Metropolitan State University of Denver. Her classes are focused on ensuring teachers are
aware of how issues of equity, privilege, and power impact teaching practices. Rosemarie has served in
directorship roles with the Colorado Department of Human Services where she was responsible for 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 the creation of Colorado’s early learning guidelines. Rosemarie is a respected
keynote speaker, and has the distinct honor of being appointed as a “Global Leader” to represent the
United States at World Conferences across the globe.

Dr. Allen’s non-profit Institute for Racial Equity & Excellence (IREE) serves as the lead agency for
ensuring equity in educational practices throughout the nation. IREE monitors and licenses child care
centers using a model she created, “Culturally Responsive Community Based Licensing”. Rosemarie also
served on President Obama’s “My Brother’s Keeper” (MBK) initiative, Early Childhood Task Force. In that
role, she was the national expert on implicit bias and culturally responsive practices, speaking at
conferences across the country. She also serves as contractor for the National Center for Pyramid Model
Innovations focusing on equity, implicit bias and culturally responsive practices in the Pyramid Model
for Supporting Social Emotional Competence in Infants and Young Children.

Rosemarie earned her B. A. from California State University, Master’s of Education from Lesley University
and Doctorate Degree in Leadership for Equity in Education from the University of Colorado, Denver.

Howard Stevenson, Ph.D. 

Dr. Howard Stevenson is the Constance Clayton Professor of Urban Education, Professor of Africana Studies, in the Human Development & Quantitative Methods Division of the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the Executive Director of the Racial Empowerment Collaborative at Penn, designed to promote racial literacy in education, health, community and justice institutions.

He is a nationally recognized clinical psychologist and researcher on negotiating racial conflicts using racial literacy for independent and public K-12 schooling, community mental health centers, teachers, police and parents. Two mental health research projects he leads are funded by National Institutes of Health examine the benefits of racial literacy. The PLAAY (Preventing Long-term Anger and Aggression in Youth) Project uses basketball and racial socialization to help youth and parents cope with stress from violence and social rejection. Dr. Stevenson also co-leads with Drs. Lorretta and John Jemmott, the SHAPE-UP: Barbers Building Better Brothers Project which trains Black barbers as health educators to teach Black 18-24 year old males to reduce their risk of — HIV/STDS and retaliation violence — while they are cutting hair.

Backed by a 12 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and based at REC, Howard also co-directs Forward Promise, a national philanthropic office that promotes a culture of health for boys and young men of color, to help them heal from the trauma of historical and present-day dehumanization, discrimination and colonization.

Dr. Stevenson is the recipient of the 2020 Gittler Prize, by Brandeis University, for outstanding and lasting scholarly contributions to racial, ethnic, and/or religious relations. Also, recently, he was listed in the RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings of the top university-based scholars in the U.S. who did the most last year to shape educational practice and policy.

His recent best-seller book, Promoting Racial Literacy in Schools: Differences that Make a Difference, is designed to reduce racial threat reactions in face-to-face encounters. Howard’s research and clinical work have been funded by W.T. Grant Foundation, Annenberg Foundation, and the National Institutes of Mental Health and Child Health and Human Development. He is the father of two sons, Bryan and Julian.

Network Meeting Steering Committee

The Network Meeting Steering Committee was formed in September of this year and has worked collaboratively to design an engaging and inclusive annual meeting that is representative of the diverse expertise and needs of the Network. We would like to thank the following individuals who volunteered:

Quentin Brown, Executive Director, Educare Lincoln
Mike Burke, Vice President, Buffett Early Childhood Fund
Amie Coomes, School Director, Educare Omaha at Indian Hill
Gisele Crawford, Research Specialist, FPG Child Development Institute UNC
Drew Giles, Director of Educare Programs, Educare California at Silicon Valley
Maria Harris, Principal, Educare Los Angeles at Long Beach
Jenna Heinen, Site Director, Educare Milwaukee
Iheoma Iruka, Chief Research Innovation Officer & Director, HighScope Educational Research Foundation
Aeryn King, Site Director, Educare Seattle
Nicole Kirkland, Director of Program Leadership, Tulsa Educare
Monique Lopez, Assistant School Director, Educare West DuPage
Giselle Scott, Master Teacher, Educare New Orleans
Lashonda Taylor, Teacher’s Assistant, Educare New Orleans
Valerie Wheatley, Chief Operating Officer, Kingsley House

Tuesday, March 24

TIME	SESSION
7am-5pm	Meeting Services
7-8am	Yoga
8-9:30am	General Breakfast
8-9:30am	IFE Targeted Supports School Breakfast
8-9:30am	Governance Council Breakfast
8:30am-4pm	Local Evaluation Partner Learning Group
10am-12pm	Interdisciplinary Learning Group
10am-12pm	Executive Leaders Group
12-1:15pm	General Lunch
12-1:15pm	New Leader & Mentor Lunch
1:30-3:30pm	School Director Learning Group
1:30-3:30pm	Master Teacher Learning Group
1:30-3:30pm	Parent Learning Group
1:30-3:30pm	Teacher Learning Group
1:30-3:30pm	Family Support Learning Group
1:30-4pm	Executive Leadership Session
4-5pm	Informal Team Time
5-6:30pm	Tomorrow's Hope Screening

Wednesday, March 25

TIME	SESSION
7am-9pm	Meeting Services
7:30-9am	Dual Language Learning Breakfast Discussion
8-9:15am	First Time Attendee Breakfast
8-9:15am	General Breakfast
9:30am-12pm	Plenary Session 1
12-2pm	Lunch on Your Own
2-3:15pm	Data Dialogue: Health Disparities and Children Enrolled in Educare
2-3:15pm	Data Dialogue: Racial Equity in Educare Schools: What Happened after our Network Meeting Conversation Last Year?
2-3:15pm	Data Dialogue: Staff Turnover in Educare
3:30-4:45pm	Data Dialogue: Health Disparities and Children Enrolled in Educare
3:30-4:45pm	Data Dialogue: Racial Equity in Educare Schools: What Happened after our Network Meeting Conversation Last Year?
3:30-4:45pm	Data Dialogue: Staff Turnover in Educare
6-7pm	Opening Reception
7-8:30pm	Dinner

Thursday, March 26

TIME	SESSION
7am-5pm	Meeting Services
7-8am	Yoga
8:30-9:15am	General Breakfast
9:30-10:45am	Learn Shop: Creating a School Family Through Professional Learning Communities and Conscious Discipline Skills
9:30-10:45am	Learn Shop: Taking Parent Advocacy to the Next Level
9:30-10:45am	Learn Shop: Generating Social Justice in the Early Childhood Classroom
11:15am-12:30pm	Learn Shop: I Love Data: Creating a School Data Culture
11:15am-12:30pm	Learn Shop: Many Languages, One Classroom
11:15am-12:30pm	Learn Shop: Elevating OUr Voices and Values: A Policy Agenda for the Educare Learning Network
12:30-1:45pm	General Lunch
12:30-1:45pm	Policy Lunch
2-3:15pm	Learn Shop: Supporting Health and Wellness in Early Childhood Site Staff to Mitigate Secondary Stress
2-3:15pm	Learn Shop: Reflective Practice and Improvement: What Have We Learned from a Decade of Educare Research
2-3:15pm	Learn Shop: Count Me In: Educare Learning Network 2020 Census Engagement and Advocacy
4:30-6:30pm	Educare New Orleans Open House

Friday, March 27

TIME	SESSION
7am-12pm	Meeting Services
8-8:45am	General Breakfast
9-11am	Plenary Session 2
11am-12pm	Lunch
11am-12pm	Steering Committee Lunch