Sheresa Boone Blanchard

Dr. Sheresa Boone Blanchard is an Associate Professor at East Carolina University in the department of Human Development and Family Science. Her research and teaching focus on family/community engagement, inclusion, families of color, assessment, early intervention, and improving teacher preparation competencies through lenses of intersectionality, equity, and social justice. Her scholarly interests emerged from over 20 years of experience as a teacher, practitioner and consultant in early childhood, special education, and early intervention. She served on the North Carolina Early Learning and Development Standards Advisory Team which coordinated the creation of the North Carolina Foundations for Early Learning and Development, the state’s early learning standards for children birth through five years. Currently a NC Child Care commissioner, she received the Merle B. Karnes Award for Service to the Division for Early Childhood (DEC) in 2018. Additionally, until 2022 she served as co-chair of the DEC Inclusion, Equity, and Social Justice Committee for five years. In Fall 2020, she was appointed to the ECU Rural Education Institute as an Associate Faculty member to sharpen her research focus on the strengths and needs in rural education and early intervention.