By Diana Hererra, Cohort 9
When asked to write something for the BECLN Leaders Corner Blog I was sent some prompts that had me reflecting on my leadership journey so far. During that reflection it struck me how my professional leadership priorities have been influenced hugely by my personal experiences over the years. As most of you know, early childhood education is a second career for me, and started with the desire to be engaged in my childrens’ education and to be able to bring them to work with me (when I was a director in a private Center). During that time I discovered the Buell Early Childhood Leadership Program and through that, the concept of “leading from any chair.” For years that was my leadership focus in my professional roles. I wanted to empower classroom staff to have a voice and to understand that they are in leadership positions, even if that wasn’t explicitly outlined in their job descriptions. I tried to find ways to have staff participate in program decision making and advocated for teachers to have a seat at the table when the Board of Directors and CEOs wanted to decide for them.
My leadership journey evolved from there and I was able to represent providers, particularly providers who serve children with special needs, at a statewide level. This desire also stemmed from a personal need of wanting my children (one on an IEP and two on 504’s) represented. I focused my leadership skills on advocacy work for the Colorado Department of Early Childhood which I felt was a crucial entity to have in our state to bring our siloed work together (this is obviously still ongoing!).
But then my leadership journey pivoted extremely. At the time I worked for an amazing early care and education program which prides itself on being truly inclusive and equitable. We had families from all kinds of cultural backgrounds, neurotypical children and children with diverse needs, families with two moms or two dads, all kinds of religious backgrounds, etc. But then we began to see children who wanted to be identified by their chosen names (yes, even at the preschool age), children who identified as a gender other than their gender assigned at birth, and children who were curious “about the whole thing.” There was a need to talk about it! Simultaneously my own son had come out as transgender following a lengthy mental health journey, which included severe bullying, finishing high school online, and a suicide attempt. I thought to myself, what if we could tackle this issue as early as preschool so it doesn’t have to escalate by the time these kids get to the middle school/high school age? What resources would teachers/administrators need to put practices and policies in place to make classrooms gender neutral and truly inclusive?
We brought up this topic during one of the LGBTQ+ affinity group meetings and I shared that I had created a presentation for my current employer, Denver Preschool Program, which is very invested in furthering equity work. My friends Carla Blue Norton (Cohort 7) and Joanne Dalton wanted to collaborate to submit a proposal on the topic for the Rocky Mountain Early Childhood Conference (RMECC) which was a huge success.
After the conference, several attendees reached out to us on wanting to bring the content into their own programs. Carla and I were asked to lead a professional development training for Warren Village and possibly the Denver Early Childhood Council (in the future). We have been asked to submit another proposal for the upcoming RMECC (2025), and we were interviewed by Julio Alas (Cohort 14) for his podcast Critical Talk. You can access the episode here: Spotify | Apple | iHeart | Amazon
Through all this, my leadership journey is still just beginning. Everything I have done so far and everything the Buell Network has taught me during the program year and since then has brought me to lead this work. It is important to me personally as much as it is professionally and the topic is not going to disappear. We need to equip our teachers and programs to be able to teach ALL children and create truly inclusive classrooms.
If you want Carla and I to lead a professional development training and conversation on the topic of inclusive classrooms in your organization please don’t hesitate to reach out, and come see us at RMECC 2025 (pending RFP approval).