Anne Douglass
Institute for Early Education Leadership and Innovation, University of Massachusetts Boston
Professor and Executive Director
Anne Douglass, PhD, is professor of early childhood leadership and policy, director of the graduate certificate program in early education leadership, and founding executive director at the Institute for Early Education Leadership and Innovation at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Dr. Douglass is a leading national expert on early education leadership. She designs, implements, and studies new practices, policies, and systems that increase the capacity of racially and linguistically diverse early educators to lead change, improvement, and innovation in ECE. Her research is conducted in partnership with professional, community, government, and philanthropic entities that share a vision to dramatically transform quality in ECE. She is the author of the 2017 book Leading for Change in Early Care and Education: Cultivating Leadership from Within, and she has been published in a wide range of academic journals, books, and news media, and presents nationally and internationally to academic, policy, and professional audiences. All of Dr. Douglass’s academic research, writing, speaking, and teaching is informed by a prior twenty-year career in urban ECE as a teacher, administrator, family child care owner and educator, and quality improvement coach and mentor to programs serving children and families in Boston’s most underserved neighborhoods. There, she saw firsthand that quality improvement in ECE cannot be imposed from the outside but must be built, designed, and nurtured by those closest to the work, all in the context of supportive systems and policies. Dr. Douglass is a current Pahara-Aspen Institute Leadership Fellow. She earned a PhD in social policy at the Heller School at Brandeis University, a master’s degree at Harvard Graduate School of Education, and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Wellesley College.
Areas of Interest & Expertise:
Education
Family Support
Professional Development
Preferred Platforms:
Workshops
Key Note Presentations
Webinars
I am open to both in-person and online events