National Convening on Children’s Racial Learning

Hari Kondabolu is a comedian, writer and podcaster based in Brooklyn. The NY Times called him “one of the most exciting political comics in stand-up today” and described his 2018 Netflix special Warn Your Relatives as “an incisively funny and formally adventurous hour that reveals a comic in command of his powers.” The special was named on many “Best of” lists, including for Time, Paste Magazine, Cosmopolitan, E! Online, and Mashable. He was also named one of 2018’s “Comics To Watch” by Variety. Hari currently hosts the new Netflix food competition series Snack vs Chef along with Megan Stalter.

In 2017, his truTV documentary The Problem with Apu was released to critical acclaim and spurred a global conversation about race and representation. The Nation called it “a devastating critique of the ultimate comedic sacred cow: The Simpsons.” It is now used in high school, college and grad school curriculums around the US.

Hari has also released two comedy albums, Waiting for 2042 & Mainstream American Comic with legendary indie rock label Kill Rock Stars. Additionally, he has performed on such shows as Conan, Jimmy Kimmel Live, and The Late Show with David Letterman among many others. He is also a former writer & correspondent on the much loved, Chris Rock produced FX show Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell.

A regular on the public radio, Hari is a panelist on the NPR game show Wait Wait... Don’t Tell Me. As a podcaster, he co-hosted the popular Politically Reactive with dear friend W. Kamau Bell. Additionally, he also co-hosts what he politely describes as a “pop up podcast,” The Untitled Kondabolu Brothers Podcast with his younger brother Ashok (“Dap” from HBO’s Chillin’ Island and defunct rap group Das Racist.)

Hari attended both Bowdoin College and Wesleyan University, graduating from the former institution with a B.A. in Comparative Politics. A former immigrant rights organizer in Seattle who worked under the leadership of now-Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, Hari also earned a Masters in Human Rights from the London School of Economics in 2008. He was the “Artist In Residence” at NYU’s APA Institute for the 2014-2015 Academic Year and at Shangri La Museum in Honolulu in 2018.

Maryam Abdullah, Ph.D., is the Parenting Program Director of the Greater Good Science Center (GGSC) at the University of California, Berkeley. She is a developmental psychologist with expertise in parent-child relationships and children’s social and emotional development. At GGSC, Maryam’s role is to develop resources for professionals and organizations providing parenting education to foster parents' well-being and to help parents nurture compassion and resilience in their children. She also shares the latest developmental science findings on Greater Good, the GGSC's online magazine, which offers science-based insights for a meaningful life. Maryam has been invited to share research findings on parenting and children's social and emotional development with The Washington Post, BBC, CNN, NPR, and more. Prior to joining GGSC, she was an Assistant Project Scientist at the University of California, Irvine Child Development School in the Department of Pediatrics, a school-based behavioral health program where she supported parents and children, and conducted intervention and evaluation research.

Dr. Leah Austin is an accomplished, multi-faceted and visionary leader who has been working on behalf of Black children and their families for over two decades. Leah began her career as a public school teacher in southeast DC teaching kindergarten and first grade. More than “just” a teacher, she found herself working with parents to ensure their children received the resources they were due while butting up against a system that wanted to prematurely label them. Forever the educator and advocate she went on to work for several nonprofit and philanthropic organizations over her career. In fact, Leah credits the summers she spent outside of the classroom interning at the National Black Child Development Institute (NBCDI) as both giving her a solid grounding in the intersections of policy, practice and programs and an unwavering commitment to asset-based framing of Black children and their families. She is honored to now lead NBCDI as its President & CEO.

Leah has enjoyed a dynamic career that has included teaching, grantmaking, organizing, research and evaluation. She is an educator, an advocate and a futurist working to create conditions that allow people to imagine and plan better futures. Her professional trajectory includes leadership positions with the United Way of Greater Atlanta, Annie E. Casey Foundation, Southern Education Foundation, Russell Innovation Center for Entrepreneurs and most recently the Schott Foundation for Public Education.

In each of these organizations she helped to accomplish great things by overseeing efforts to advance educational equity in the South, managing an investment portfolio designed to increase the education achievement of students in Atlanta, GA, providing language and literacy resources to teachers and families, establishing a national literacy campaign encouraging reading between boys and men, working on grassroots organizing efforts to successfully advocate for universal prekindergarten legislation in Washington DC and strengthening the education justice movement by providing research, policy analysis and funding as well advocating within philanthropy to increase investments that support racial justice in education.

Leah is also passionate about her own learning, she holds an undergraduate degree in psychology from Fisk University, a Master’s degree in School Psychology from Howard University and a Doctorate of Education from the University of Pennsylvania. She recently obtained a certificate in Strategic Foresight from the University of Houston. Lastly but far from least she is the mother of an energetic and insightful son.

Kimberly Brenneman is a program officer at the Heising-Simons Foundation. Her grantmaking focuses on effective practices to support young children’s learning inside and outside of school, especially in mathematics. As research faculty at Rutgers University, she led projects to develop instructional resources for STEM learning in school and home settings. Co-author of Preschool Pathways to Science (PrePS): Facilitating scientific ways of thinking, talking, doing, and understanding and Teaching STEM in the preschool classroom, she is the science lead for the comprehensive preschool curriculum Connect4Learning (C4L). She also consults on educational media for preschoolers and aligned resources for families and educators.

Sharron Hunter-Rainey is the managing director of the Equity Research Action Coalition, housed at Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina.  The Coalition is a multi-disciplinary, multi-generational collection of researchers conducting original research and re-analyzing published data using an equity lens to influence public policy to ensure all children have access to the resources they need to thrive.  She is a Public Voices Fellow for the Op-Ed Project and the National Black Child Development Institute.  Her work has addressed equity in varied settings for decades.  She was a founding member of the Black Women Managers’ Initiative at Procter & Gamble and currently co-chairs the Advocacy Committee for the Carolina Black Caucus.

Dr. Hunter-Rainey applies strategic management, project management, and problem solving skills developed throughout her academic and corporate work experiences.  She earned a doctorate in business administration from Duke University, a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Cincinnati, and a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Purdue University.  She has held faculty and administrative positions at North Carolina Central University, Langston University, and Shaw University.  She led the team that developed Tostitos Scoops at Frito-Lay and earned six patents (three domestic plus three international) for a lipstick formulation sold by Procter & Gamble as Cover Girl Smoothers.  Her volunteer service includes a term on the Durham County ABC Board and facilitating a subcommittee of the Participatory Budget process for the City of Durham.

Liz Kleinrock (she/her) is an award winning educator and best selling author, as well as a Korean-American transracial adoptee, queer, Jewish woman. In 2018, Liz received the Teaching Tolerance Award for Excellence in Teaching, and in 2019 delivered her TED Talk, “How to teach kids to talk about taboo topics." In the spring of 2021, Liz released her first book, Start Here, Start Now: A Guide to Antibias and Antiracist Work in Your School Community with Heinemann Publishing, and is excited to share the publication of four children's books with HarperCollins including the recent release of What Jewish Looks Like. She currently works as Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging at a pre-k through middle school, and resides in Washington DC with her cat and two bunnies. 

Richard M. Lee, Ph.D. is a Distinguished McKnight University Professor and Distinguished University Teaching Professor in the Department of of Psychology and Director of the the Asian American Studies Program at the University of Minnesota. He was the Melvin and Gertrude Waldfogel Scholar of the College for 2020-2023. 

Professor Lee was born and raised in Connecticut. He is the youngest of three sons raised by immigrant parents from South Korea. He is a first-generation college student and attended Simon’s Rock College of Bard, Boston College (B.A.), and Virginia Commonwealth University (Ph.D.), followed by a predoctoral internship and postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Davis. He previously taught at the University of Texas, Austin before moving to Minnesota in 2000.

Professor Lee is a fellow of APA Division 17 (Society of Counseling Psychology) and Division 45 (Society for the Psychological Study of Culture, Ethnicity and Race) and the Asian American Psychological Association. He is a founding member of the Asian Caucus (chair 2019-2021) of the Society for Research on Child Development and a founding member of the Diversity Committee of the Society for Research on Adolescence. From 2011-2013, he served as President of the Asian American Psychological Association. He is a past Editor for Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology (2015-2019). His research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.

Along with his artist brother, Martin, Professor Lee co-creates a daily comic strip - The Other Ones by Lee - which highlights the everyday life experiences of kids from diverse racial and immigrant backgrounds. The comic aims to shift the racial narrative of youth of color by translating social science research into a graphic story form.

Balancing work and personal life is important. Outside of Elliott Hall (home of the Department of Psychology), Professor Lee enjoys karaoke, local arts, outdoors stuff (bicycling, camping, canoeing, and fishing), playing sports with his boys (and helping coach youth baseball). He lives in Minneapolis with his wife who is an assistant professor in the genetic counseling program, two sons, his artist father, two cats, and one dog.

Jason Low is the publisher and a co-owner of LEE & LOW BOOKS, the largest multicultural children’s book publisher in the United States. Jason has spoken at national conferences like American Library Association and Texas Library Association. He has presented at universities such as Princeton, Pratt, and NYU about the importance of inclusion in children’s books. In addition to publishing award-winning books, the company initiated a series of Diversity Gap Studies, which revealed a lack of representation across industries like film, television, and theater. Lee & Low also spearheaded the first Diversity Baseline Survey to measure diversity in publishing staff, the results of which have become an often referred to benchmark by academics and major media alike. In 2016, the Eric Carle Museum selected Lee & Low as the recipient of its Angel Award for the company’s dedication to artists and authors who offer children both mirrors and windows to the world.

Keri Rodrigues is Matthew, Miles and David’s mom and the visionary founder and president of the National Parents Union (NPU) – a groundbreaking organization that unites parents from diverse backgrounds to advocate for the rights, economic and educational needs of America’s children. Under her leadership, NPU has become a formidable force, driving policy reforms and fostering parental empowerment across the nation to dismantle economic and educational barriers that keep America’s children from achieving economic mobility and prosperity.

Rodrigues has served on the US Department of Education’s National Parent and Family Engagement Council, the Children’s Equity Project Family Advisory Committee at Arizona State University and the Massachusetts Democratic State Committee and the Ethnic Council of the Democratic National Committee. Her work, impact and perspective has been featured in the New York Times, NBC Nightly News, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, Fox News, the Washington Post, POLITICO and the Boston Globe and has been a guest lecturer at Stanford, UCLA, UC Berkeley, Columbia University, Harvard, MIT and Georgetown Law.

In 2022, the National Parents Union was honored as the National Advocate of the Year by UnidosUS and the ERN Change Agent of the Year. In 2024 NPU was honored with the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) Caregiver Award for Outstanding Leadership in Social and Emotional Learning. Keri serves on the Board of Educators for Excellence and as a Lector at Saint Charles Parish in Woburn, Massachusetts.

In his role as President and CEO, Paul Siefken ensures that Fred Rogers Productions (FRP) presents the very best in educational children’s media on broadcast and digital platforms—and beyond. Under his direction, the company has experienced tremendous growth, earning a national reputation for both innovation and storytelling. Paul has assembled a world-class, mission-driven leadership team that is committed to building on Fred Rogers’ legacy by introducing new productions and expanding the reach of their impact by collaborating with like-minded partners in both production and distribution.

He has also spearheaded major engagement initiatives for FRP’s award-winning series, which include Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, Peg + Cat, and Odd Squad, as well as the newly launched Donkey Hodie and Alma’s Way, which premiered to critical acclaim in 2021. These efforts have taken the series into communities around the country, working with public television stations, museums, science centers, libraries, volunteer organizations, and early childhood groups to provide meaningful content that supports the aims and priorities of the respective institutions.

Before joining Fred Rogers Productions in 2013, Paul spent nearly ten years at PBS, most recently as Director of Children’s Programming, where he managed the development of numerous PBS KIDS series, including The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That, Sid the Science Kid, WordGirl, Wild Kratts, Fetch! With Ruff Ruffman, and Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood. Prior to that, he managed sponsored promotions and media relations as well as produced interactive content for Cartoon Network. Before entering children’s media, Paul worked as a high school English teacher in both Georgia and North Carolina. He holds a B.A. in English from Duke University.

Dr. Adiaha Spinks-Franklin is a board certified Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrician, wife,  mother, and grandmother who is a life-long anti-oppression/pro-liberation child advocate. 

Dr. Spinks-Franklin serves on multiple national committees in the American Academy of  Pediatrics (AAP), Society of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics (SDBP), and the  American Board of Pediatrics (ABP). Dr. Spinks-Franklin served on the faculty of Texas Children’s Hospital/Baylor College of medicine from 2005-2022, where she co-founded the first ACGME accredited DBP fellowship in the state of Texas. In 2015, she founded DBP Doc, PLLC,  a consultation, education, and training company through which she has consulted with school  districts, day care centers, and parent organizations. In 2017, she founded the pediatric anti racism social justice organization called "Race and Children Educational Collaborative of Anti Racist Developmental-Behavioral Professionals” (R.A.C.E. C.A.R.D.). R.A.C.E. C.A.R.D.  conducts national trainings to build racial literacy and anti-racist medical practice in health care  providers.  

Dr. Spinks-Franklin earned a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin. She  graduated with honors with a Doctor of Medicine from Meharry Medical College School of  Medicine in Nashville, TN. She completed Pediatric residency at the Children’s Hospital of  Michigan/Wayne State University in Detroit, MI. Then Dr. Spinks-Franklin completed the Dyson  Advocacy Fellowship and the Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics Fellowship at Children’s  Hospital Boston/Harvard Medical School, in Boston MA. She earned a Master’s in Public Health  degree from the Harvard School of Public Health during her fellowship. She has participated in  global pediatric healthcare projects in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and South America.  

Dr. Spinks-Franklin is a descendant of generations of social justice warriors, and she has  actively worked to dismantle racism and systems of oppression since she was an adolescent.

Dr. Yalda T. Uhls is the Founder and CEO of the Center for Scholars & Storytellers at UCLA. She is an internationally recognized research scientist, educator, author, and expert on the science of media and adolescent development, the importance of authentic inclusive representation, and the evolving nature of parenting.

Recognized as one of the top 100 people in Hollywood (Fade-In Magazine), and one of nine DEI experts changing Hollywood (Business Insider), Dr. Yalda T. Uhls has devoted her career to making a positive impact through the power of entertainment. She spent almost two decades working in the movie industry, serving as a senior executive at studios like MGM and Sony, where she supervised multimillion dollar films from initial stages to final distribution. An early champion of inclusive representation on-screen, Dr. Uhls worked closely with writers developing their scripts, alongside directors, actors, and marketing executives, to develop compelling and authentic stories like her very first film Mi Familia, prompting audiences to thoughtfully consider nuanced understandings of family, culture, and the American Dream. 

After having kids of her own, Dr. Uhls decided to go back to school and earned an MBA and Ph.D. in developmental psychology from UCLA. She became one of the first researchers to study the impacts of social media on youth well-being. She also pioneered research around young people’s relationship to fame in an increasingly digital world, and won many awards in her academic career including the prestigious Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation from the 85 year old organization the Society for Research on Child Development.

Dr. Uhls has spoken in front of a myriad of audiences, including the White House, Harvard Business School, Google, the NFL, the American Psychological Association, and more. Her research continues to be featured in outlets like The New York Times, Time Magazine, Good Morning America, USA Today, NPR. She is the author of Media Moms and Digital Dads: A Fact Not Fear Approach to Parenting in the Digital Age. And in addition to her full time role leading the Center for Scholars & Storytellers, she is on faculty at UCLA where she teaches a class on Digital Media and Human Development. Dr Uhls currently serves on several advisory councils, including the NAACP Entertainment Advisory Council, Common Sense Media’s LA Advisory Council, and the YouTube Kids and Family Council.

As the proud daughter of Persian immigrants and mom of two incredible Gen-Z children, Dr. Uhls approaches her work with not only academic expertise but also from a place of passion and lived experience. She currently resides in Ventura, CA, where she enjoys retreating from the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles to quiet moments near the beach.

Adriana Umaña-Taylor is the Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot Professor of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her work seeks to apply developmental science in a manner that reduces ethnic-racial disparities in psychological and academic adjustment and, in turn, promotes social justice. Umaña-Taylor has successfully collaborated with school districts for over 20 years to design and implement large-scale, longitudinal, school-based data collection efforts with high school students. She is Principal Investigator of multiple, longitudinal research projects funded by the National Science Foundation, the Institute of Education Sciences, the National Institutes of Health, the William T. Grant Foundation, and the Spencer Foundation. She developed the Identity Project, a school-based intervention curriculum that engages adolescents in the developmental processes of ethnic-racial identity exploration and resolution. Her recent studies focus on testing the efficacy and effectiveness of the Identity Project; developing professional development programming to prepare educators to implement the Identity Project with their students; understanding how adolescents develop their ethnic and racial identities in the context of their peer relationships within the school setting; testing how the negative physiological effects of race-based stress can be reduced by intervening in adolescents' ethnic-racial identity development; and exploring the universal nature of ethnic-racial identity development as a promotive factor for adolescents in Latin American and European countries. She has published over 200 peer-reviewed journal articles and handbook chapters, and her books include Below the Surface: Talking with Teens about Race, Ethnicity, and Identity (with Rivas-Drake; Princeton University Press, 2019); Studying Ethnic Identity: Methodological and Conceptual Approaches across Disciplines (co-edited with Santos; American Psychological Association, 2015); and Studying Ethnic Minority and Economically Disadvantaged Populations: Methodological Challenges and Best Practices (with Knight and Roosa; American Psychological Association, 2009). Umaña-Taylor has served as associate editor for the Journal of Research on Adolescence, as a member of the Executive Council of the Society for Research on Adolescence, and on the Board of Directors for the National Council on Family Relations. Her contributions to mentorship and student training have been recognized with national awards such as the Outstanding Mentor Award from the Society for Research on Adolescence and the Marie F. Peters Award from the National Council on Family Relations. She is an inducted Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the Association for Psychological Science, and the National Council on Family Relations.