Long Bio

My name is Dr. Megan Pamela Ruth Madison (she, her) and I am happy to meet you in this way. Thank you for finding your way to my website and for taking the time to read more about me and my work.

One important thing to know about me is that I am an educator. Teaching, training, coaching, facilitating…this work is my profession, and it is my vocation. For me, political education is deeply satisfying and pleasurable; and I am committed to the lifelong development of excellence. I earned both my master’s in early childhood education and teaching certificate in Chicago in 2011. My first full-time lead teacher position was at the Carole Robertson Center for Learning, co-teaching a bilingual (English/Spanish) preschool classroom in North Lawndale. Now, I live on stolen Lenape land in Harlem, and mostly teach grown-ups.

The core of my work with adult learners is supporting fellow early childhood educators to strengthen our practice around anti-bias education, but I also have experience training families, organizers, and school leaders. I am a registered Professional Development Specialist in the state of New York and have worked most closely with the Center for Racial Justice in Education, the New York Early Childhood Professional Development Institute, and Bank Street’s Center on Culture, Race & Equity. As a consultant, I’ve gotten pretty good at developing curriculum and learning standards, writing grants and reports, training trainers, strengthening cohort programs, facilitating communities of practice, and designing mixed-methods evaluation studies. I have experience with hiring and management and am very proud of the executive search processes that I’ve participated in. At the same time, I feel most at home in the classroom. I prefer co-teaching and have a network of trusted colleagues that I like to work with. I also do a lot of teaching online, and maintain a Patreon community with my colleague, Ijumaa Jordan.

I enjoy presenting workshops and keynotes at education conferences across the country, and am proud to serve on the governing board of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC, pronounced “nay-see”). In 2017 I ran on an explicitly racial justice platform, and was elected by the membership as the association’s first student governing board member. During this first term, I championed (and helped to craft) our field’s first position statement on Advancing Equity, I contributed to the revision of Developmentally Appropriate Practice, and I ensured that the Power to the Profession initiative addressed issues of equity. In September 2025 I began my second term.

This work led me to co-author a series of award-winning books called First Conversations, available in stores and online in both board and picture book formats. The first book, Our Skin: A First Conversation about Race, came out in 2021 and has already sold more than 120,000 copies. Now that I’ve completed my Ph.D., I’m looking forward to spending more time learning from readers and teachers who are using the books in their classrooms.

In my free time, I like to read nonfiction, eat ice cream, practice Mussar, and take pictures of flowers. I spend most of my volunteer hours organizing for racial and social justice. I think that it’s really important for all of us to find/make a political home because the challenges we face in our neighborhoods, and in our society, require us to act collectively and build power. I am grateful for my training in the fundamentals of community organizing through JOIN for Justice, and forever shaped by what I learned about cultural organizing at Linke Fligl. Right now, I’m learning more about Radical Diasporism and the life of Melanie Kay/Kantrowitz.

My political home is Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ, pronounced “jay-fridge”) and I recently completed a term as the chair of the Board of Directors. I stepped into that role right after we had concluded a major strategic planning process and right before the COVID-19 pandemic. Looking back, I’m particularly proud of:

• the way that our community chooses to prioritize disability justice,
• our recommitment to organizing for Palestinian liberation as a local issue,
• the development of our c4 and electoral project: The Jewish Vote, and
• the work of our caucuses and fiscally-sponsored projects like the Black Jewish Liberation Collective (fun fact: I was a founding member)

…all while continuing our abolitionist campaign and coalition work, doubling membership and staff, and maintaining sustainable financial growth!

I’m now bringing all these skills and lessons to Trans formative Schools. I used to dream about becoming an Executive Director, but now I much prefer the work of supporting nonprofit leaders, particularly women with marginalized identities who lead visionary projects like these. I feel so passionately about democratic governance and organizational development that I even got a certificate from the Kellogg School of Management.

Thanks for reading all that. I hope it gave you a better sense of who I am, how I spend my time, and why I do what I do. I also hope you eat something delicious today and get a good night’s sleep tonight.