In the Spring of 2023, Dr. Emerson completed her research-based Ed.D. from Teachers College, Columbia University in the Department of Curriculum & Teaching. Her research explores teacher education with a focus on the curricula and pedagogies that lead to transformations in paradigms and practices in the service of racial equity. Her dissertation inquired into the curricula that has been enacted in NYC schools with teachers in antiracist professional development between 2012-2022, with a focus on abolitionist thinking and critical whiteness. Her most recent inquiry has surrounded teacher learning for restorative justice, with an emphasis on elementary school spaces. In addition to qualitative methods, she utilizes arts-based educational research methods at multiple points in the research process.

Dr. Emerson participated in the Riccohono Academic Resilience Fellowship Program this year. She also received the 2022 John Schmitt Award for Outstanding Graduate Student Research from the New England Educational Research Organization. In 2021 she received the Dr. Isaac Gottesman Featured Contribution to Critical Thoughts & Praxis from the Journal for Critical Thought & Praxis for an article related to mothering as a site of political change. She has been the recipient of several internal research grants, a 2024 grant from the Jasper & Marion Whiting Foundation Fellowship, a 2022 Abolitionist Teaching Network (ATN), and a 2022 Teachers College Dean’s Grant for Student Research. Her research has appeared in journals such as the Review of Research in Education, Whiteness & Education, Bank Street Occasional Papers, and Radical Teacher.

Over the last five years she has taught courses in educational foundations, urban education, childhood education, elementary education, and early childhood in both MA and undergraduate programs at Providence College, Teachers College and Barnard College at Columbia University, and Hunter College.

Originally Dr. Emerson is from Manchester, New Hampshire, where she attended K-12 public schools. Her undergraduate degree is from the University of Pennsylvania and her MA in Elementary Inclusive Education is from Teachers College, Columbia University. She taught in both charter and traditional public schools throughout NYC for 10 years. While she has experience in 3rd and 4th grades, her focus (and favorite!) was largely 5th grade. During that time she was named the 2018 Critical Teacher of the Year from the National Association of Multicultural Education.

Dr. Emerson is also the mom of three little ones and she spends time in New Hampshire visiting family. In her free time Dr. Emerson likes to listen to audiobooks, cook, make art, ride her bike slowly and safely, follow pop culture, and watch garbage television.