Mariana Souto-Manning

Mariana Souto-Manning, Ph.D., is an early childhood education scholar and teacher educator whose work centers on issues of equity and justice in teaching and teacher education. An Afro-Latina, first-generation immigrant originally from Brazil, she began her career as a classroom teacher in public preschools and nursery schools before moving to the United States, where she completed a bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Special Education, a master’s degree in Early Childhood Education, and a Ph.D. in Language Education at the University of Georgia. She has held faculty positions at the University of South Carolina and the University of Georgia, and later became a professor of early childhood education and teacher education at Teachers College, Columbia University.

Souto-Manning is the fifth President of Erikson Institute, a graduate school of child development in Chicago, Illinois, where she leads work advancing knowledge, practice, and policy in early childhood education, child development, and family well-being. A widely published author, she has written or co-written numerous books and more than 75–80 peer-reviewed articles, including No More Culturally Irrelevant Teaching: Not This, But That, which examines culturally responsive teaching practices and was published by Heinemann with co-authors Carmen I. Lugo Llerena, Jessica Martell, Abigail Salas Maguire, Alicia Arce-Boardman, Nell K. Duke, and Ellin