Debbie LeeKeenan is codirector of Anti-Bias Leaders ECE (www.antibiasleadersece.com),a lecturer, and author. She has been in the field for over 50 years, a former preschool, special education, and public school teacher. She was director of the Eliot-Pearson Children's School at Tufts University and a member of the early childhood faculty at Tufts University, Lesley University, and the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. Debbie is the producer of two award-winning anti-bias education films. Her work has been published in numerous journals and books, including Young Children, Exchange, and Theory Into Practice, From Survive to Thrive: A Director's Guide for Leading an Early Childhood Program, and Leading Anti-Bias Early Childhood Programs: A Guide to Change, for Change. Debbie is Chinese American, the child of immigrant working-class parents, and part of a mixed-race family.Iris Chin Ponte, PhD, is the director and a classroom teacher at the Henry Frost Children's Program in Belmont, Massachusetts. She is an adjunct faculty member in the Graduate School of Education at Lesley University. Recognized as an Exchange Emerging Leader in 2015, Iris is a former Fulbright Scholar with expertise in cross-cultural issues in education in the United States, United Kingdom, Taiwan, China, Japan, and Newfoundland. She has published in the topics of children and technology, behavior management, children's play, outdoor environmental design, early education program leadership and birth parent reunions, and heritage trips for adoptees in China. Dr. Ponte has received professional recognition from the Children's Defense Fund, CBS, and the American Educational Research Association. Dr. Ponte was also awarded the Thomas J. Watson IBM Fellowship.Caryn Park, PhD, is nearing her 30th year as an educator and has taught in early childhood and higher education classrooms, mentored and coached preservice and in-service educators, and served as an anti-bias/anti-racist education consultant and workshop facilitator for schools and parents. Her primary areas of interest include qualitative research and teacher inquiry, supporting immigrant and multilingual learners, teacher identity and pedagogical development, and social emotional learning for students and educators. Her interest in social emotional learning and mental health in particular hasmost recently led her to pursue licensure in marriage and family therapy. Caryn is an immigrant from South Korea, a mom of two young adult children, and lives in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.Sandy Baba, PhD, is a researcher and practitioner specializing in early care education and family service development. Her work includes leadership of statewide and national quality rating and improvement initiatives and the development of a culturally responsive family engagement framework for low-income Asian American immigrant families, recognized by the US Department of Education. Dr. Baba's current work is artificial intelligence (AI) focused, examining the responsible application of artificial intelligence in human services and workforce development. Her scholarly and applied pursuits emphasize human-centered coaching and mentoring approaches that support social service practitioners, with particular attention to mental health support, reflective practice, and professional resilience. In 2008, she founded the NAEYC AANHPI Interest Forum with colleagues to advance the global early childhood workforce. She currently serves as vice president of the board of directors for the Council for Professional Recognition.
