Bio
Ilana Dvorin Friedman, PhD: Ilana Dvorin Friedman is a child development consultant, instructor, and researcher. She is passionate about early childhood Jewish education, anti-bias education, giving voice to educators’ experiences, early childhood leadership and advocacy, and designing and implementing professional development opportunities for early childhood professionals. Ilana’s work focuses on the interplay between culture and child development and the roles of social justice and inquiry in early childhood Jewish education. For more than a decade, she has been an adjunct instructor at a variety of academic institutions teaching courses, such as child development, family and culture, and historical perspectives on early care and education. Most recently, Ilana was the advisor for the JUF (Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago) Cohort in Erikson Institute’s MS ECE online program. Ilana graduated with her PhD in Child Development from the dual program at Loyola University Chicago and Erikson, completing her dissertation on gender beliefs of teachers in Orthodox Jewish early childhood programs. She lives in Chicago with her husband and children.