January Webinar: Engaging in Anti-bias, Culturally Sustaining Family Partnership

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Black, Indigenous, and other families of color continue to thrive despite navigating systems and environments that place them at social, economic, and psychological risk. This presentation will uncover the importance of centering the multiple intelligences, expertise, and lived experiences of minoritized families with young children. Leveraging findings about minoritized families’ experiences with racism and discrimination, their financial security/material hardship, mental health and wellbeing, and early care and education options, this session will uncover how early care and education systems and those who work alongside families can create systems of opportunities and ensure they thrive. Participants will examine how they can activate the 4Es of Exploration, Expectation, Education, and Empowerment as they transform the early care and education system to ensure justice for families and communities who have been historically marginalized, sidelined, and silenced.

Presented by: Iheoma U. Iruka, Ph.D.

Iheoma U. Iruka, Ph.D., is a Research Professor in the Department of Public Policy and the Founding Director of the Equity Research Action Coalition at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at UNC Chapel Hill. Dr. Iruka is leading projects and initiatives focused on ensuring that minoritized children and children from low-income households thrive through the intersection of anti-bias, anti-racist, and culturally grounded research, program, and policy. Dr. Iruka has authored over 80 books and papers and has given over 300 talks addressing systemic inequities and advancing research and action on the well-being of children and families. She serves on numerous national and local boards and committees, including the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, the American Psychological Association’s Board of Educational Affairs, the National Science Foundation, and the Lancet Commission on Racism and Child Health. In addition to being on the National Advisory Committee for the U.S. Census Bureau and a Census Advisor for the National Urban League, Dr. Iruka is the recipient of the 2022 American Psychological Association Mid-Career Award for Outstanding Contributions to Benefit Children, Youth, and Families and the 2023 Association of University Centers on Disabilities Leadership for All award-winner. She was recently named a 2023 American Psychological Association (APA) Fellow.