Aeshna Badruzzaman serves as the Project Director for the Council on Addressing Racism in the Early Years (CARE) and as the Senior Project Manager for Instructional Design. As Project Director she works closely with the council co-chairs to convene and set the direction for a developing council of researchers, practitioners, community advocates, and policy experts with the ultimate goal of analyzing, synthesizing, and communicating what the current evidence tells us about the effects of racism on children’s everyday lives. As Senior Project Manager for Instructional Design, she supports the Center’s efforts to bridge the research/action gap by providing a range of capacity-building experiences and developing curricula, programs, toolkits, and other learning experiences that make the science of early childhood actionable and support the field in increasing the impact and scalability of innovations.
Prior to joining the Center, Aeshna spent over 15 years as a researcher, educator, and program manager. She has designed and implemented research agendas in collaboration with NGOs and activist partners focusing on climate change, conflict negotiation, workers’ rights, and human rights and advocacy. She has spent years teaching at the university level—designing curricula and facilitating student research and learning experiences (in person and online) that enable critical analysis. She has also worked in academic publishing, striving to highlight emerging scholarship in regions typically underrepresented in traditional academic journals through advising and the development of online programs.
Aeshna holds a PhD in political science from Northeastern, an MA in politics from New York University, and a BA in economics and development studies from UC Berkeley.