The Early Link Podcast

In this episode of The Early Link Podcast, host Rafael Otto talks with Dr. Walter Gilliam about preschool suspension, expulsion, and implicit bias. Dr. Walter Gilliam is professor of child psychiatry and psychology at the Yale University Child Study Center, and the director of The Edward Zigler Center in Child Development and Social Policy. He coauthored the book A Vision for Universal Preschool E...

In this episode of The Early Link Podcast, host Rafael Otto talks with Pooja Bhatt and Anthony Castaneda about the value of culturally specific, early childhood advocacy and how their organizations are approaching this important work. Guests: Pooja Bhatt is the cofounder and managing partner at SeeChange, a consultancy focused on people-centered change. She also works as a facilitator for the Earl...

In the newest episode of The Early Link Podcast, host Rafael speaks with Elena Rivera and Soobin Oh from Children’s Institute about the importance of racial equity in early childhood spaces and how the Children’s Institute is working to center racial equity in its own work. Guests: Elena Rivera is the the senior health policy and program advisor at Children’s Institute. She is responsible for esta...

In this episode of The Early Link Podcast, host Rafael Otto explores the topic of advocacy and the details of two legislative agendas focused on building an inclusive, equitable, and just public education system. Guests: Amanda Manjarrez is the public policy & government affairs director at Foundations For A Better Oregon. Previously, Amanda served as director of advocacy at Latino Network, and as...

In this week’s episode, host Rafael Otto speaks with Hadiyah Miller, president of of the Oregon Association for the Education of Young Children (ORAEYC) and chairperson of Black Child Development PDX about combating the expulsion and suspension of Black children in early learning. Guest Hadiyah Miller is the current president of the ORAEYC and works as the African American Family Childcare Network...

In this week’s episode, host Rafael Otto talks with La Mikia Castillo, a Black Lives Mater activist and community organizer, about what it looks like to dismantle systemic racism. Guest La Mikia Castillo is an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California Sol Price School of Public Policy, a diversity, equity and inclusion consultant, and an organizer with Black Lives Matter, Los Ange...

In this week’s episode, host Rafael Otto talks with Jax Richards, the president and founder of Safeguard Youth, about Oregon’s child welfare system. Guest Jax Richards is an economics and social public policy student at Oregon State University. In 2019 he started Safeguard Youth with the mission to provide a platform for foster youth and survivors of child abuse to advocate for a higher quality ch...

In this week’s episode, host Rafael Otto speaks with Tabatha Rosproy, the first early childhood educator to be named National Teacher of the Year. Tabatha Rosproy, a 10-year veteran Kansas teacher, is the first early childhood educator to be named National Teacher of the Year. She teaches preschool for Winfield Early Learning Center (WELC) in Winfield, Kansas. Housed in Cumbernauld Village, a loca...

In this week’s episode, host Rafael Otto talks with veteran teacher Janice Lewis about what it means to provide remote learning to preschoolers. Guest: Janice Lewis is a preschool teacher at Vose Elementary in the Beaverton School District. Background: Distance Learning for All, a campaign from the Oregon Department of Education, officially launched across public schools in Oregon in mid April. Th...

In this week’s episode, host Rafael Otto talks with Regina Ingabire and Virginia Luka about their role as culturally specific COVID-19 liaisons. Guests: Regina Ingabire is a Community Outreach Manager at the Portland Bureau of Emergency Management (PBEM). She leads public engagement initiatives focusing on disaster risk awareness, community resilience, and household preparedness in historically un...

In this week’s episode, host Rafael Otto delves into the importance of focusing on Native American wellness and the impact of COVID-19 on Native communities. Guests: Jillene Joseph is the Executive Director for the Native Wellness Institute and a partner with the Future Generations Collaborative. Suzie Kuerschner is also a partner with the Future Generations Collaborative and serves as the Educati...

In this week’s episode, host Rafael Otto talks with Dr. Carlos Crespo about COVID-19 and the impact on families and communities. Note: This is a developing story and some things may have changed since the date of recording. Check the CDC’s website for updates and best practices on how to stay healthy. Dr. Carlos Crespo is a community health professor at the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health. He stu...

In this week’s episode, host Rafael Otto talks with local education policy experts about the implementation of the Student Success Act. Guests Scott Nine is the Assistant Superintendent at Oregon Department of Education. He has spent almost two decades organizing, writing, speaking, and learning about what it takes to foster equity for students and remodel public education systems. Parasa Chanramy...

Swati Adarkar discusses the role of Children's Institute in driving educational change in communities across Oregon. She also describes recent legislative wins through the Student Success Act, the power of partnerships that connect practice to policy, and the growing momentum to strengthen early care and education for young children and their families. Concordia University will honor Adarkar with...

In this week’s episode, host Rafael Otto speaks with Soobin Oh about the importance of anti-bias education in early childhood. Soobin Oh is the senior education advisor at Children’s Institute. He is a committed social justice educator and is well-versed in anti-bias education, culturally sustaining pedagogy, and critical pedagogy. Soobin holds a master’s in early childhood inclusive curriculum an...

Rob Grunewald is an economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Grunewald conducts research on community development and regional economic issues. He co-authored a report called “Early Childhood Development: Economic Development with a High Public Return” in 2003. Since then he has continued his work supporting and advocating for investments in early childhood programs and services.

2019 has been an incredible year for early childhood. We recorded 13 episodes of The Early Link podcast this year. For this, our 14th show, we review some of the common themes shared by our many esteemed guests, and share what’s on our minds as we move into 2020. This is our final Early Link podcast of the year, a 2019 year in review and look ahead to 2020.

Dr. Anya Hurwitz is the executive director of SEAL, an organization based in Oakland, California that is at work improving the education experience for English learners. SEAL stands for Sobrato Early Academic Language, and is a model that includes curriculum, professional development and technical assistance so schools and teachers can better meet the needs of English learners. Dr. Hurwitz has bee...

Dr. John Kitzhaber is well known in Oregon and across the country for his expertise on health care and health policy. He has practiced as an emergency physician, served for fourteen years in the Oregon legislature and three terms as Governor of Oregon. Through his service, he authored the Oregon Health Plan and was the chief architect of the state’s Coordinated Care Organizations. Today, he contin...

Deborah Leong is professor emerita of psychology at Metropolitan State University of Denver where she taught for 37 years. She is co-founder and executive director of Tools of the Mind, a curriculum and professional development program that was developed more that 25 years ago for early childhood classrooms to improve how children learn and how teachers teach. Dr. Leong also has extensive experien...

Christina Weiland is an assistant professor at the School of Education at the University of Michigan. Dr. Weiland’s research focuses on the effects of early childhood interventions and public policies on children’s development, especially on children from low-income families. She is particularly interested in the active ingredients that drive children’s gains in successful, at-scale public prescho...

Host of The Early Link Podcast, Rafael Otto, talks with Multnomah County Commissioner Jessica Vega Pederson about her recently released Preschool For All report that explores how to provide preschool for all families in the county.

In the city of Drain, Oregon in Douglas County, a new health clinic has just opened, thanks to lots of community-based work involving schools, parents, and advocates in the region. The North County Health Clinic is operated by the Umpqua Community Health Center based in Roseburg. I visited the clinic during their recent open house. I wanted to find out what it took to open the clinic, and why the...

Dana Hepper from Children's Institute and James Barta from Children First for Oregon provide a legislative recap to close out the 2019 session. In this segment, they discuss the final days that resulted in passage of nearly 150 bills, including all remaining bills from the Early Childhood Coalition legislative agenda. Among the highlights are bills that fund universally available voluntary home vi...

Ajay Chaudry was the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Human Services Policy in the US Department of Health and Human Services. Prior to that appointment in the Obama administration, Dr. Chaudry was a Senior Fellow and Director of the Center on Labor, Human Services, and Population at the Urban Institute in Washington, DC. He has led public policy research focused on child poverty, child well-being a...