Jennifer Mata-McMahon

I am an early childhood educator, working in the field since 1995, with a MA (1998), EdM (1999), and EdD (2010) from Teachers College, Columbia University. I am the co-author of "Ambiente en Acción" (Environment in Action) (Unimet, 2006), author of "Spiritual Experiences in Early Childhood Education" (Routledge, 2015), and co-editor of "Spirituality: An Interdisciplinary View" (Inter-Disciplinary Press, 2016) and "The Bloomsbury Handbook of Culture and Identity from Early Childhood to Early Adulthood" (Bloomsbury Press, 2021), as well as the author of several book chapters and journal articles related to children’s spirituality. My main research interests are bilingual education and spirituality in secular, public educational settings. I work as an Associate Professor of early childhood education at UMBC and as the Director of the Sherman Center for Early Learning in Urban Communities.