Amber Sansbury
Research Fellow
Amber B. Sansbury is a research fellow at the Center on the Ecology of Early Development (CEED) at Boston University Wheelock College of Education & Human Development. Her work focuses focuses on centering parent voice in collective advocacy, program evaluation of early care and education, and research partnerships through a racial equity lens. She works on the Head Start-IDEA Parent Advocacy Ecosystem project with the Center for Evaluation Innovation and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Ms. Sansbury is deeply committed to shared policymaking and action to challenge anti-Black structures in schools. She is a PhD candidate in education at George Mason University, focusing on early care and education. Her dissertation examines the cultural values and race-related beliefs that motivate African American parents’ and African American ECE teachers’ shared racial socialization and identity development processes.
Pronouns: she/her
Education
PhD, Education, George Mason University (May 2024 graduation)
MEd, Early Childhood Education Curriculum & Instruction, George Mason University
BIS, Middle East Studies, Georgia State University
Selected Publications
Iruka, I. U., Sansbury, A. B., Telfer, N. A., Ibekwe-Okafor, N., Gardner-Neblett, N., & Durden, T. R. (2023). Factors Associated with Black Children’s Early Development and Learning. In S. Q.
Cabell, S. B. Neuman, & N. Patton Terry (Eds.), Handbook on the Science of Early Literacy. Guilford.
Iruka, I. U., Gardner-Neblett, N., Telfer, N. A., Ibekwe-Okafor, N., Curenton, S. M., Sims, J., Sansbury, A. B., & Neblett, E. W. (2022). Effects of racism on child development: Advancing ant-racist developmental science. Annual Review for Developmental Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-devpsych-121020-031339
Iruka, I. U., Durden, T. R., Gardner-Neblett, N., Ibekwe-Okafor, N., Sansbury, A. B., & Telfer, N. A. (2021). Attending to the adversity of racism against young Black children. Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1177/23727322211029313
Vesely, C.K., DeMulder, E., Sansbury, A.B., Davis, E., Letiecq, B.L., Willard, I., Goodman, R., & Amigas de la Comunidad. (2021). ‘A place where my children could learn to read, write, and play’: The search for early care and education among undocumented Central American immigrant mothers. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 56, 306-319. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2021.03.016
Vesely, C., Mehta, S., Sansbury, A.B., Arora, S., & Gundling, R (2021). Reimagining teacher education for family engagement: A Response to the 2020 health and socio-historical context. Teacher Educators’ Journal, 14, 170-191.
Selected Presentations
Onuoha, A., Morton, L. B., Sansbury, A. B., and Burnett, M. (March, 2023). To the Center: A Conversation about Research on Black Women and Girls in Developmental Science. Conversation Roundtable at the 2023 Society for Research in Child Development Biennial. Salt Lake City, UT.
Iruka, I. U., Telfer, N. A., Sansbury, A.B., Ibekwe- Okafor, N., Gardner-Neblett, N., & Durden, T. R. (June, 2022). Black Families’ Voices: Resilience in the Face of the Two Pandemics—COVID-19 and Racism. Conference workshop at ACF’s National Research Conference on Early Childhood (NRCEC) Virtual Conference.
Iruka, I. U., Sansbury, A.B., Telfer, N. A., Ibekwe- Okafor, N., Gardner-Neblett, N., & Durden, T. R. (September, 2021). Black Families’ Voices: Resilience in the Face of the Two Pandemics—COVID-19 and Racism. Conference workshop at 106TH Annual Meeting and Virtual Conference.
Bethea, C., Call-Cummings, M., Chen, X., Dodman, S., N’Diaye, N., Sansbury, A.B., & Vesely, C.K. (listed in alphabetical order, November, 2021). Putting antiracism into action through critical examination of our courses: Developing and using an antiracist pedagogy course audit tool. Invited Workshop Presentation at the 2021 National Council on Family Relations Annual Virtual Meeting.