About the Authors

Holly Lanoue, M.ED

Hello, my 25-year career in Early Childhood Education started back in 1999 when I decided to go back to school and earn my AA degree at Olympic College. Once I finished my degree, I was hired at the campus childcare center as an assistant teacher in the toddler classroom (which turned out to be my favorite age group to work with). I worked for a year and was promoted to a lead teacher at the campus Early Head Start. I worked for 5 years and decided to go back to school and earn my undergraduate degree from Chapman University. I continued on and earned my Master’s degree in Curriculum Instruction from Lesley University. While I was earning my degree, I was hired as an adjunct faculty and ran the Early Achievers Grant for Olympic College. I am now a full-time tenured faculty teaching Early Childhood Education classes and love every minute of it. For the past 14-years I have loved helping new teachers navigate through their educational journey. Working on this OER project has been an honor and I feel fortunate to have worked with such inspirational educators here in Washington State. This is an amazing Intro book for any early childhood educator, hope you enjoy reading it as much as we did writing it for you all.

Christine Moon, M.S.

I am in my 26th year as a tenured full time professor at South Puget Sound Community College in the Early Learning and Education Program. I also serve as the Program Lead, overseeing both Early Childhood and Parenting Education Programs. I am an active member of both the Washington state groups Organization for Parenting Education Programs and Early Childhood Teacher Preparation Program, serving as president for both groups at various times. I began my career in child care as an after school teacher. Later I worked as a center supervisor, teacher, home visitor and mental health consultant for Oregon State funded PreK and Head Start in WA. I also spent time as a preschool teacher for children with exceptional needs. One of my favorite jobs was as a therapist for children and families where I met my husband who is now an elementary school principal. I enjoy researching how to help children and families thrive and passing on this information in my classes to adults who are interested in working with kids and families in some capacity. I am especially interested in brain development and diversity, equity, belonging and inclusion. I would envision a world where all children feel valued, seen and cared for by loving adults and communities. I am excited to be part of the group bringing OER to our field and the teachers who will use this information to care for our most vulnerable citizens.

Angela Blums, PhD

My career working with children began 25 years ago, while working with toddlers in a child care center. Since then, I have been fascinated with all things related to child development and early childhood education. I have taught in a variety of zero to five settings, including traditional child care, Montessori, and Waldorf programs in Minnesota, California, and Germany. Working with children has been one of the greatest joys of my life. Outside of the classroom, I worked in child development research, focusing on cognitive development in young children. I completed my B.A. in Child Psychology at the University of Minnesota and my PhD in Child Development from the University of California – Davis. I have been an Early Childhood Education professor at Pierce College since 2015. In my free time, I enjoy spending time outdoors with my husband and children.

Brenda Boyd Brown, Ph.D.

I am a retired associate professor of Human Development at Washington State University. I taught in the early childhood education area for more than 30 years. I have directed laboratory preschools at three major universities in the US and Canada, two of which included full-day child care serving infants through school-aged children. I have conducted research evaluating efforts to improve the professionalism of the early childhood education field and educated numerous teachers of young children. I have held several positions on the governing board of the Washington Association for the Education of Young Children, including president and vice president. My hope for this book is that it will excite readers about the potential for the future of the early childhood education field. I am happy to have had the opportunity to share what I’ve learned over the years spent working with children, families, and colleagues. I hope it is a useful resource.

Ardene Niemer, M.Ed.

Working with children and families has been the focus of my entire career in Early Childhood Education. I have served as an adjunct professor of ECE at Olympic College since 2017 building on my over 40 years of experience in the field of early learning, family support, early literacy, and special education. My degrees and experience have built a holistic foundation for working with children and families and teaching adult learners. Before joining the OC team, I served as faculty at other colleges, and as a disability and education consultant to Head Start and ECEAP programs. In a leadership capacity, I served as president and co-president of the Early Childhood Teacher Preparation Council, also working with a team to create the Common Courses for Early Learning in Washington, and other state-wide special projects. I was the author of 2 chapters of Version 1.1 of this OER text and am excited to be a part of the team to present this second, updated version of the OER. I hope that this OER will play a part in creating a strong foundation for students newly entering the field so that they can have a positive and informed impact on the lives of children and families. As I also teach the course using the OER, I am eager to see students apply what they have learned to their professional practices and continue to “master their craft” of teaching young children in partnership with families.

Gayle Julian

I have been in the field of Education all 38 years of my career having taught people ages 4 to 82! I earned my undergraduate degree from the University of Wyoming in Home Economics Education with an emphasis in Child Development and my Masters from San Francisco State University in Curriculum and Instruction. For the past 23 years I have been the Early Childhood Program Director and Faculty at Olympic College in Bremerton, Washington and during that time have been lucky enough to work on the ECE State Stackable Certificates Project, the writing of the STARS 30 hour Child Care Basics Course and Version 1 of this text. I have also served as President of the Early Childhood Teacher Preparation Council. Personally, my husband John and I have a blended family of five adult children ranging in ages 23 to 29 and I cannot wait to be a grandmother and support them in raising happy and healthy young children. I love the field of early learning and am proud to be a writer of this textbook–I believe that quality open educational resources benefit students who are our future for the healthy growth and care of young children. I hope you enjoy this collaborative writing project brought to you by some of the best early childhood professionals in the State of Washington!

Ninderjit Kaur Gill

I am an able-bodied, non-neurodiverse, heteronormative, cisgender woman of color. I use she/her pronouns. My preferred language to speak and read is English and I am an American and Canadian citizen whose ancestors come from Punjab, India. I am the daughter of an immigrant Punjabi- Sikh mother who still holds their Indian nationality and does not speak English. I am a single mother of two adult sons who are still navigating the impact of a public school system that assimilated and acculturated them into dominant culture values and beliefs.

I am in my 6th year as a full time tenured faculty at North Seattle College. I teach in the Associate and Bachelors of Early Childhood Teacher Education preparation programs. I was a teacher of young children for 3 years and then a director of an early learning program for 7 years. Through my own personal and professional experiences with discrimination, I was motivated to return to school to complete my Masters in Education focusing on multicultural education in early childhood education. I continue my studies as an education doctoral candidate with a focus on anti-bias and anti-racist curriculum in teacher preparation programs.

I do my best to use the power and privilege I hold as an educator wisely and carefully. I believe in sharing power with and being innovative in our educational work to ensure we disrupt racism, sexism, classism and ableism in our education systems. I am also an advocate for language justice and ensuring that in-service students/providers/teachers are able to learn in their preferred or home language. I hope chapter 5 will provide you with a start to understanding the necessary and important role the concept and ideals of diversity, equity and inclusion play in our work as teachers and educators. We teach what we know and who we are. Therefore it is vital that we build our skills, knowledge and efficacy in this work so we can begin to see, hear and engage with all the ways our children, families and we show up in our work.

Jennifer Karshna, Ph.D.

I have been working with young children and their teachers for over 30 years. I received my undergraduate and Master of Arts degrees from Antioch University and PhD from Walden University. My graduate degree studies were focused on teacher education in early childhood. I have taught young children in several types of settings (full day childcare, Head Start, part-day preschool), have done on-site training and coaching at ECE programs, provided in-service training for ECE teachers, and taught college courses. My current role is ECE Program Chair and full-time faculty at Tacoma Community College. In addition to teaching, I have served on the Board of Directors for the following organizations: Puget Sound Association for the Education of Young Children, Washington Association for the Education of Young Children, Washington State Early Childhood Teacher Preparation Council, and the Pike Place Market ChildCare Center. My hobbies include gardening, reading, and enjoying the company of my wonderful family members and friends.