UMass Boston Announces New Cohort of Emerging Leaders in Early Education and Care

Post Master’s Program Fellows to Receive Intensive Training to Lead Transformational Change in Early Education Practice and Policy

The Institute for Early Education Leadership and Innovation (the Early Ed Leadership Institute) at UMass Boston is pleased to announce the selection of nine Early Education Leadership Fellows for the 2022-2023 cohort of its Post-Master’s Certificate Program in Early Education Research, Policy, and Practice (PMC).

The Early Education Leadership Fellows were selected from a highly competitive pool of approximately 50 applicants. They represent a variety of public, private, and community-based programs. The 2022-2023 cohort will spend the next two years immersed in intensive training in relational and entrepreneurial leadership, early childhood policy, and the science of early learning. They will also connect with and join the Early Ed Leadership Institute’s growing network of emerging and established early childhood education leaders.

“We are so pleased to welcome this richly diverse and talented cohort of Education Fellows to our program. So much of the news we hear about early education focuses on how educators are leaving the field,” said Lynne Mendes, director of leadership programs for the Leadership Institute. “While the workforce shortage is a real issue, it’s also true that the field is populated with creative and enthusiastic educators who want to stay and are eager to learn how they can put their ideas for improving the field into practice. I really cannot wait to see what this next group accomplishes.”

The Post-Master’s Certificate program at the Early Ed Leadership Institute provides early educators, directors, and small business owners with training in relational and entrepreneurial leadership designed to foster the skills, competencies, and mindsets needed for driving change and innovation in early care and education research, practice and policy.

More than 94 PMC alumni have formed a powerful leadership corps, leveraging their practical experience and leadership training to improve early care and education quality and children’s learning, and mentoring the next generation of leaders and entrepreneurs. Past graduates of the Post-Master’s Certificate Program have gone on to pursue doctoral study to advance scholarship in the field, led quality improvement efforts in their programs, sought new positions to make change on a scale greater than that possible in their prior job, served on professional advisory boards, and launched entrepreneurial ventures including the establishment of innovative models of early care and education.

The Post-Master’s Certificate Program in Early Education Research, Policy, and Practice is supported by grant funding and students are offered tuition scholarships that offset program-related costs. Courses take place online and on Saturdays to accommodate employment- and family-related responsibilities.

The following are the 2022-2023 Early Education Leadership Fellows:

●        Ana Teresa Farias, who teachers early childhood classes at Urban College in Boston and is a coaching specialist at Child Development and Education in West Boylston

●        Jamie McDonough, Vocational teacher for Early Childhood Education, Minuteman High School, Lexington

●        Maureen Myers, Program Administrator and Founder of Little Voices Early Care and Education, Hyde Park

●        Nancy Yee, K1 Sheltered English Immersion teacher, Boston Public Schools

●        Nicole Kroll, universal Pre-K teacher, Ellis Early Learning in Boston

●        Steffi Wright, Education Manager for Infant & Toddlers at Dimock Early Head Start in Boston

●        Winsome Joy Harding, instructional coach, Boston Public Schools

●        Chris Kelley, Education Specialist and Development for the Greater Boston YMCA

●        Jan Gilpin, Systems Specialist for the New England Head Start Training and Technical Assistance Network