2021 Educare Learning Network Meeting

Meeting Details

This year’s virtual meeting, April 27-29, 2021, will include a blend of live and pre-recorded sessions held between 11 a.m.-4:00 p.m CDT each day. In alignment with our ongoing Network priorities, the focus area will continue to expand our Network-wide commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging in the field of early childhood education.

We look forward to welcoming Educare peers and national experts as the facilitators for our sessions. Executive Leadership sessions and Communities of Practice (CoP) groups typically held the week of the Network Meeting will continue with their current meeting cadence outside of the meeting time in April and will align the topics discussed at the Network Meeting into their existing work.

This year’s meeting is open to all Educare school staff, partners and researchers at no cost. We participants to register even if they won’t be able to attend all sessions so they will receive follow-up material. At this time, based on the decision of our Network-led steering committee, this convening will not be open to individuals outside of the Network.

All registered attendees will receive email notifications, including session announcements, news and engagement opportunities.

Participating Virtually

To fully engage in the 2021 virtual Network Meeting experience, we encourage attendees to consider the following when deciding to attend the conference.

Stable internet connection for joining live sessions and streaming on demand recorded content.
A computer or mobile device with the ability to connect 2-way audio (listening & speaking) is required for joining sessions where verbal engagement is required (speaking via your computer or mobile device). We recommend using a headset or a connection via your mobile device. There will not be a telephone number to connect audio on the conference website.
Busy during the time of a live session? All live session content will be recorded and made available on demand for registered attendees.
To fully leverage the power of the Network Meeting audience, we encourage every attendee to create profiles on the conference website. Here, you will share your professional biography, headshot, social media and email address. A smiling face next to a comment is a simple step to help create social connectedness while being physically apart.

Call for Session Proposals

The call for session proposals is now closed. We invite you to take advantage of this opportunity to showcase innovations and learnings related to the Educare Model Framework (community linkages, data utilization, embedded professional development, high-quality teaching practices, intensive family engagement and strong leadership), the meeting theme of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Structural Racism and other topics of interest by submitting a session proposal. Read more on the requirements and process here.

Decisions on accepted proposals will be made by February 10, 2021.

Network Meeting Steering Committee

The Network Meeting Steering Committee works 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 this year:

Jennifer Adhima, Associate Director, Project Eagle
Sharon Barker, Mentoring Supervisor, Educare Los Angeles at Long Beach
Mike Burke, Vice President, Buffett Early Childhood Fund
Nikki Burnett, Executive Director, Educare Springfield
Amie Coomes, School Director, Educare Omaha at Indian Hill
Gisele Crawford, Research Specialist, Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Lisa Fumia, Mentor Coach, Educare Tulsa at Kendall-Whittier
Arelí Hernández, Program Coordinator, Educare California at Silicon Valley
Iheoma Iruka, Research Professor of Public Policy and Director, Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Monique Lopez, Assistant School Director, Educare West DuPage
LaDonna Stevens, Master Teacher, Educare Tulsa at Celia Clinton
Valerie Wheatley, Chief Operating Officer, Kingsley House
Chakara Wheeler, Executive Assistant, Educare Flint

For questions, please email support@educarenetwork.org.

Live Plenary Broadcast
Tuesday, April 27, 2021
11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CT

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.

Live Plenary Broadcast
Wednesday, April 28, 2021
11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CT

Frank Waln

Frank Waln is an award winning Lakota music artist from the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota who has appeared on MTV, ESPN, NPR and numerous publications. As a Gates Millennium Scholar, Frank Waln earned a BA in Audio Arts and Acoustics from Columbia College Chicago. Frank utilizes music, performance and writing to share his story with the world in order to shed light on Indigenous history in the US and inspire others to deepen our understanding of how settler colonialism has impacted us all around the world.

Live Plenary Broadcast:
Thursday, April 29, 2021
11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CT

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 National Institutes of Health funded research projects he leads examine the benefits of racial literacy and culturally responsive interventions. The PLAAY (Preventing Long-term Anger and Aggression in Youth) Project uses basketball and group therapy to help youth and parents cope with stress and trauma from violence and social rejection and Dr. Stevenson co-leads the SHAPE-UP: Barbers Building Better Brothers Project with Drs. Lorretta and John Jemmott, 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. He is the father of two sons, Bryan and Julian.

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