UMass Boston

The Institute cultivates the entrepreneurial leadership of early educators and child care business owners, and produces cutting-edge research on leadership, innovation, and change in early education. The Institute is one of five core partners leading the National ECE Workforce Center, a $30 million research and technical assistance center funded by the federal Administration for Children and Families. Dr. Douglass has been designing and leading innovative academic and leadership development programs for early educators at UMass Boston since 2009. She launched an innovative BA degree program designed for the early care and education workforce and led it for a decade. She grew the BA program from an annual enrollment of 15 students to over 300 students, and the program graduates more racially and linguistically diverse BA-degreed early educators each year than any other higher education institution in Massachusetts. She also led the development of the post master’s certificate and Ph.D. programs in early care and education that are preparing the next generation of leaders and scholars.

Dr. Douglass is a leading national expert on early education leadership, quality improvement, and equity. She designs, implements, and studies practices, policies, and systems that increase the capacity of the racially and linguistically diverse early care and education workforce to lead change, improvement, and innovation. Her research is conducted in partnership with professional, community, government, and philanthropic entities that share a vision to dramatically transform professional development and quality improvement in ECE. As Principal or Co-Principal Investigator, she has been awarded over $30 million in external funds for research and training from foundation and public partners. 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 under-resourced 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 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.

The Institute cultivates the entrepreneurial leadership of early educators and child care business owners, and produces cutting-edge research on leadership, innovation, and change in early education. The Institute is one of five core partners leading the National ECE Workforce Center, a $30 million research and technical assistance center funded by the federal Administration for Children and Families. Dr. Douglass has been designing and leading innovative academic and leadership development programs for early educators at UMass Boston since 2009. She launched an innovative BA degree program designed for the early care and education workforce and led it for a decade. She grew the BA program from an annual enrollment of 15 students to over 300 students, and the program graduates more racially and linguistically diverse BA-degreed early educators each year than any other higher education institution in Massachusetts. She also led the development of the post master’s certificate and Ph.D. programs in early care and education that are preparing the next generation of leaders and scholars.

Dr. Douglass is a leading national expert on early education leadership, quality improvement, and equity. She designs, implements, and studies practices, policies, and systems that increase the capacity of the racially and linguistically diverse early care and education workforce to lead change, improvement, and innovation. Her research is conducted in partnership with professional, community, government, and philanthropic entities that share a vision to dramatically transform professional development and quality improvement in ECE. As Principal or Co-Principal Investigator, she has been awarded over $30 million in external funds for research and training from foundation and public partners. 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 under-resourced 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 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.