Toward policies that promote access and equity in early education: A conversation with Shantel Meek

Shantel E. Meek is a professor of practice and the founding director of the Children’s Equity Project at Arizona State University. She previously served as a consultant in early childhood policy and strategy at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, D.C., and she served in the Obama administration at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and in the Domestic Policy Council at the White House, advising senior officials on a wide range of policy issues, including Head Start, childcare, public preK expansion, and efforts to promote equity and reduce disparities across the early care and education system. Meek also played a key role in President Barack Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper initiative, leading its early childhood policy component. She serves on the boards of Child Trends and the Pyramid Model Consortium, is a member of the Ideal Learning Roundtable, and has published opinion pieces in the New York Times, Washington Post, and other outlets.

Meek holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree and doctorate in family and human development from Arizona State University. She is the granddaughter of Mexican immigrants, and her personal experiences as a Latina and first-generation college graduate from a small border town inform her work and contribute to her drive to improve the learning conditions of children from historically marginalized communities. Today, she lives in Phoenix with her husband and two babies, both of whom are growing up bilingual.

PHI DELTA KAPPAN: To start, can you give us a broad overview of the challenges facing early childhood education in the United States? If you were looking down at our system from 5,000 feet, what would be the main features you’d point out?