CUNY-IIE held the virtual launch of its Immigration in Early Childhood Education professional development module on December 4, 2025.
This resource was created for PreK-2nd grade educators to better support our youngest students and their immigrant families across public, private, and religious preschools, Head Start sites, childcare centers, and community-based organizations. This module is released as the rights of immigrants are under attack, and their access to education programs such as Head Start is being restricted for undocumented families.
Date: Thursday, December 4, 2025
Time: 5:00 - 6:00 pm ET
During this webinar, participants learned about the ways that early childhood educators can create welcoming learning environments for immigrant-origin students and their families.
Panelists included:
Cecilia Espinosa, Associate Investigator at CUNY-IIE and Chair, Department of Early Childhood/Childhood, Lehman College, CUNY
Kellie Griffith Tanaka, Project Researcher at CUNY-IIE
Cristina Melendez, Deputy Chancellor, Division of Family, Community, Student Empowerment, NYC Public Schools
Milagros Nores, Co-Director for Research and Associate Research Professor at the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER)
This webinar was moderated by Tatyana Kleyn, Principal Investigator at CUNY-IIE and Professor of Bilingual Education and TESOL programs at The City College of New York.
Speaker bios:
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Cecilia M. Espinosa, Ph.D., was born in Ecuador, South America. She is currently a Professor in the Department of Early Childhood/Childhood Education (ECCE) at Lehman College, CUNY. She received her PhD from Arizona State University. Cecilia started her education career as a teacher’s assistant. She was a bilingual multiage teacher and director of a dual language program in Phoenix, Arizona. Currently, she teaches courses on biliteracy, observation and assessment, and English as a new language. She is also the Professional Development Liaison at Samara Dual Language School. Cecilia is a Faculty Associate of the New York City Writing Project (NYCWP); she is an Associate Investigator of the CUNY-Initiative on Immigration and Education (CUNY-IIE). Cecilia served as an Associate Investigator of the Project CUNY New York State Initiative Emergent Bilinguals and New York State (CUNY NYSIEB); she served as Chair of the Charlotte Huck Award for Outstanding Children’s Literature in Fiction (NCTE). Cecilia co-led with Dr. Patricia Velasco, the NY State Department of Education Project on Practices with Multilingual Learners and the Next Generation Learning Standards. Cecilia has authored articles and chapters on biliteracy development, descriptive processes, teacher-as-researcher, and children’s literature that nurtures and affirms their identities. She co-authored with Laura Ascenzi-Moreno the book, Rooted in Strength: Using Translanguaging to Grow Multilingual Readers and Writers.
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Kellie Griffith Tanaka is a bilingual dual language teacher currently working as a Project Researcher for CUNY-IIE. As part of her role at CUNY-IIE, Kellie supports middle school educators working with immigrant-origin students across New York State. She also works with teacher candidates in the Bilingual Education and TESOL Programs at both Hunter College and The City College of New York (CCNY). After a decade of teaching in early childhood bilingual classrooms, Kellie’s philosophy of education centers the voices of young immigrant-origin students through translanguaging and culturally responsive teaching practices. Her international teaching experiences include a year in Loja, Ecuador, as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant, and a summer in San Jose, Costa Rica as a preschool teacher assistant. Kellie completed her master’s degree in Bilingual Education at CCNY in 2018 and was featured in CUNY-IIE’s Not Too Young: Immigration in Elementary Schools video series.
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Cristina Meléndez is an accomplished educational leader with over two decades of experience in public education and the nonprofit sector. As Deputy Chancellor for Family, Community, and Student Empowerment, she is committed to creating a future where families, communities, and students are true partners in decision-making. A former teacher, assistant principal, and executive director, Dr. Meléndez has shaped policy and practices at every level of the school system—from classrooms to central offices. She has led groundbreaking initiatives including NYC’s largest family-facing literacy campaign and the launch of Family Connectors, a multi-agency effort to connect families with critical supports. Her partnerships with tech and nonprofit leaders have expanded opportunities for students and brought real-time tools to schools. Dr. Meléndez holds a Doctorate in Educational Leadership from the University of Pennsylvania, two Master’s degrees from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a Bachelor’s from Cornell University.
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Milagros Nores is the Co-Director for Research and Associate Research Professor at the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER). With a expertise in early childhood evaluation, informing data-driven policy and programming, cost and benefits of early interventions, evaluation design, equity, and English language learners, she has established herself as a leading researcher in the field of early care and education. Currently, Dr. Nores leads early care and education evaluations in various locations, including Colombia (South America), Philadelphia, and New Jersey. Her extensive work includes studying a high-quality early care and education program in Colombia, examining parental-child educational practices for minority children in the U.S., and evaluating Seattle’s preschool program, the West Virginia preschool program, and the Early Care and Education system in Indiana, among others. Recently, she concluded her appointment to a special commission of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, which studied the Opportunity Gap for Young Children from Birth to Eight in the United States leading to a high profile national report. In 2024, together with a group of 27 global researchers, she released The Lancet Series on Early Childhood Development and The Next 1000 Days.
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Tatyana Kleyn is Professor of Bilingual Education and TESOL programs at The City College of New York. She received an Ed.D. in international educational development from Teachers College, Columbia University. Tatyana was a Fulbright Scholar in Oaxaca, Mexico studying return migration and Past President of the New York State Association for Bilingual Education. She served as acting co-PI and associate investigator for the CUNY-New York State Initiative on Emergent Bilinguals (CUNY-NYSIEB), and co-PI for the Multilingual Learner Project (MLP) and Building Secondary Educator and Administrator Leadership (B-SEAL) for Multilingual Learners, both federal Title III grant programs. Tatyana has authored books and articles on immigration, translanguaging, and bilingual education. Her latest book is titled Living, Learning and Languaging Across Borders: Students Between the US and Mexico. Her work in film as a producer and director includes the Living Undocumented Series, Una Vida, Dos Países: Children and Youth (Back) in Mexico and the Supporting Immigrants in Schools video series. Tatyana was an elementary school teacher in San Pedro Sula, Honduras and Atlanta, Georgia. For more information see TatyanaKleyn.com.
