Biography

For over 30 years, Dr. Stacey French-Lee has been an early childhood education advocate, practitioner, and leader in state licensed and NAEYC accredited programs. In her work, Stacey harnesses her expertise to develop responsive and equity-based policy, programs, and practices alongside children, families, community members, and teachers. Her leadership and experiences span international and national contexts, including working in military, corporate, and university settings, serving on urban school boards and serving as a consultant for early childhood programs, foundations, and county government agencies. Currently, Stacey is a clinical assistant professor at Georgia State University (GSU) in the department of Early Childhood and Elementary Education, where she serves as a core faculty member in the Birth-Five teacher degree and certification program and the Master of Arts in Creative and Innovative Education program. She is also the executive director of the two GSU campus child development centers.

Through the lenses of critical frameworks, including intersectionality, critical race theory, and community cultural wealth, Dr. French-Lee focuses her work on critiquing and dismantling any presumed neutrality or universality of the idea of “child” and “childhood” in policy, practice, and research.

Dr. French-Lee earned her B.S. degree in Communicative Disorders from Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky and her M.Ed, Ed.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the department of Early Childhood and Elementary Education at Georgia State University. Her major research interest is on how the intersections of race, class, and gender influence how African American children are perceived and educated in the United States.