UMass Boston

High-quality early care and education plays an essential role in society, ensuring young children are able to learn, grow, and thrive in the healthiest possible ways. This kind of early care and education requires bold, effective, and creative leaders with a shared vision who reflect the racial, cultural, and linguistic richness of our communities. The Institute for Early Education Leadership and Innovation at the University of Massachusetts Boston (The Leadership Institute) amplifies the talent that already exists in the workforce to advance the field of early care and education. Founded in 2016, we drive systems change by investing in workforce and leadership development, research, and the larger early education ecosystem to cultivate effective leaders who reflect and represent their communities. We consistently and successfully make accessible, high-quality early care and education a reality for more children and families, while supporting the professional growth of a diverse workforce of early educators. As a result, The Leadership Institute is nationally recognized as a model of excellence. 

The Leadership Institute drives systems change in early care and education so that all early educators, young children, and their families thrive. We invest in workforce and leadership development, research, and the larger early education ecosystem to cultivate leaders who reflect and represent their communities.

Systems of early care and education workforce must center racial equity and better reflect communities. Leaders who come from the communities they serve have the skills, relationships, and experience necessary to lead change. This type of specialized knowledge combined with deep professional skill is essential for developing field-level solutions with measurable and sustainable impact. A racially, culturally, and linguistically diverse workforce has the skills, perspectives, and specialized knowledge to lead powerful change. The Institute for Early Education Leadership and Innovation works to remove the barriers that currently limit access to entrepreneurial leadership training and continuous quality improvement for many historically marginalized educators in early care and education.

Click here for our blog, Early Ed Leadership and Innovation featuring news and information about our programs, research, and partnerships! 

Partners and investors are critical to the Leadership Institute’s work in cultivating leadership from the field of early care and education’s (ECE) diverse workforce. Key partners who’ve made transformational grants to support this work include the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care, the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and New Profit.

Professional, community, government, and philanthropic entities that share our vision to dramatically transform quality in ECE and who have supported us with funding, strategic advice, and programmatic collaborations are listed below:

• City of Boston
• Boston Children’s Hospital Foundation
• The Boston Foundation
• Boston Public Schools Early Childhood Department
• Mayor’s Office of Women’s Advancement - City of Boston
• Child Trends
• Maryland Early Childhood Leadership Project - Sherman Center for Early Learning and Urban Communities, University of Maryland Baltimore
• MA Department of Early Education and Care MA
• Department of Higher Education
• Mathematica Policy Research
• New Profit
• Project Hope
• Promise Venture Studio
• Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
• Start Early Tech Goes Home
• UMass Donahue Institute
• US Department of Education
• US Department of Health and Human Services
• United Way
• Vital Village Network

Anne Douglass, PhD

Professor & Executive Director

Kori Lantas

Chief of Staff

Erin Pelton

Chief Financial Officer

Songtian Zeng, PhD

Director of Research & Evaluation

Teddy Kokoros

Project Director , Massachusetts StrongStart Professional Development Centers

Caroline Yoder-Blackman

Statewide Coaching System Manager, Strong Start Professional Development Centers

Amanda Lopes, PhD

Learning & Quality Improvement Manager

Becky DelVecchio, PhD

Program Coordinator, Early Education Quality Improvement through Instructional Leadership

Cristina Mendes

Director of Early Childhood Support Organization

Debra Johnston-Malden

Co-Director, Early Childhood Fellowship Program

Co-Coordinator, Metro Boston Professional Development Center

Eric Burkes

Co-Coordinator of the Metro Boston Professional Development Center

Maria Teixeira

Leadership Coach, Metro Boston Professional Development Center

Lynne Mendes

Director of Leadership Development

Natalie Calixto

Institute Assistant

Yujin Lee, PhD

Associate Director of Research

Lindsay Beatty

Research Analyst

Nicole Restrepo

Research Analyst

Xiatong “Saige” Liu

Research Analyst

Phuong Nguyen

Research Analyst