Special Guest

Anne Douglass

Anne Douglass, PhD, is professor of early childhood policy and leadership and founding executive director of Early Education Leaders at the University of Massachusetts Boston, and formerly an early educator for 20 years. A nationally recognized expert on the early care and education workforce, leadership, and quality improvement, she has led transformative innovations in higher education and in expanding access to equitable professional and leadership development pathways for early educators. She serves as the Co-Director of Research for the National Early Care and Education Workforce Center. 

Dr. Douglass is author of Leading for Change in Early Care and Education: Cultivating Leadership from Within (2017). Her research has been widely published in academic journals, books, and media outlets. She frequently presents on early educator leadership at national and international conferences.

Her work is deeply grounded in two decades of hands-on experience in early care and education—as a teacher, center director, family child care owner and educator, and as a quality improvement coach and mentor to programs serving Boston’s children and families. These experiences shaped her understanding that meaningful, lasting quality improvement in ECE cannot be imposed externally—it must be led and nurtured by those closest to the work, within the context of supportive and equitable systems and policies.

Dr. Douglass is a Pahara-Aspen Institute Leadership Fellow. She holds a PhD in social policy from the Heller School at Brandeis University, a master’s degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Wellesley College.