Our Team

Lisa Kaplan Shaanan, MS OTR/L TMHP, is an Adjunct Professor at Santa Fe Community College, a thought leader, and innovator in early childhood education and therapeutic intervention. Her work includes professional learning, coaching, advocacy work, therapy, and consulting to individuals, families and institutions. Lisa is the founder of Early Education Equity and the driving force behind it. It is a mission.

For over 25 years, Lisa’s work focused on driving equity for children from a wide range of ethnic, cultural, racial, linguistic, and socio-economic backgrounds and diverse abilities, as well their families and the professionals who support them. After years of continuous improvements, Lisa’s professional development programs are now widely and repeatedly used by education organizations for their educators , therapists, and administrators, with some programs designed for families. In recent years, these have become a mainstay in more than 11 California counties in Federal, State, Blended and Privately funded early childhood programs. 

With the success of these programs, Lisa founded Early Education Equity, LLC to be the vehicle through which workshops and services in a variety of areas are provided by Lisa and a cohort of experienced and recognized professionals. These include typical and atypical development of young children, Teacher-Child Interactions, Social Emotional development, Leadership Development, Learning Environment Design, Autism Spectrum Disorders, Gross, Fine and Oral Motor Development, Dual Language Development, STEM, and Sensory Processing. She is also a certified Beginning Together Inclusion Facilitator and endorsed as a Transdisciplinary Mental Health Practitioner. Lisa is certified as a Master Trainer in ECE in the State of New Mexico.

Damaris Divito is a native New Yorker born to first generation, Puerto Rican parents.

After graduating from the High School of Performing Arts with a major in Drama, she then went on to pursue her studies in speech and language pathology at Queens College, followed by a M.A. at St.John's University. Her 27 years of experience in the career of speech and language therapy include autism spectrum disorders, auditory-aural habilitation/rehabilitation, social-pragmatic skills, executive functioning, and other developmental disabilities. Her first love of theatre has been the foundation for creating many connections with her students from birth to High School. 

Our Team

Adele Cruz has extensive experience in the field of education. Her 40 years of experience include direct classroom work with Infants and toddlers, preschoolers and school age students. She has been a program director with experience managing private, state and federally funded early education centers.  

Her early childhood teaching experience has led her in the direction of coaching and training. She is a consultant with the San Mateo County Office of Education where she provides  instructional coaching support to preschool teachers.  In addition to professional development trainings, in person and online,  Adele is also a college level instructor.  She co-teaches the Dual Language Learners Course for early education professionals in the SF bay area.

Adele's work also includes work as a Data Collection and Data Utilization coach with Applied Survey Research, in San Jose for Educare California at Silicon Valley School. This research work includes collecting student data through administering child assessment and supporting  preschool teachers in using the data to inform classroom instructional practice.

Adele holds a Masters of Early Education and as well as training certifications in DRDP, ECERS, ITERS , CLASS and PITC. In her spare time, she enjoys hiking, biking, and spending time at the beach. Adele enjoys spending as much time as possible with her grandchildren and looks forward to cooking dinner on Sunday nights for her grown children.

Tara Terry Voit, Ph.D., Adjunct Professor at Santa Fe Community College (SFCC). Dr. Voit earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration, and a Master’s in Business Administration/Organizational Psychology, respectively from American Intercontinental University, and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Early Childhood Education (ECE) from East Tennessee State University (ETSU). Prior to her doctoral studies at ETSU, Dr. Voit worked for Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), and simultaneously performed as the Executive Director for Scarboro Learning Center and implemented her Montessori Certification experience into the curriculum. She holds the credential as a New Mexico Trainer in ECE for the State of New Mexico.
 
Before assuming her current position with Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) as a Technical Project Manager, Dr. Voit led as the Assistant Professor/Director of Early Childhood Education at Northern New Mexico College (NNMC).  Dr. Voit was the Co-Chair for the State Of New Mexico’s Early Childhood Higher Education Task Force (EC-HETF). Dr. Voit serves as a core board member for the New Mexico Reggio Emilia Exchange (NMREX). Dr. Voit’s has conducted research on Generational Influences of African American’s in Rural Tennessee; Early Education in Rural Tennessee and Reggio Emilia and Head Start among others
 
Dr. Voit has leadership experience as managing, directing, and teaching in marginalized preschool programs for public, private, pueblo, and Early Head Start/Head Start in Tennessee and New Mexico. Her primary focus is to serve under-resourced children and communities by making visible their intellectual capacities, and facilitated by the best research, practices, and curriculum that reflects their needs.
 
 
 
 

Ann Brownstone, OTD/S, MS OTR/L; SWC, is an occupational therapist with 26 years of experience working with children and their families. She has experience with learning, sensory processing, feeding, motor, and medical challenges. Ann has worked in a NICU, a school for children with cochlear implants and other assistive hearing devices, medical and private clinics, and on a pain team for adolescents. She is a certified provider of Unyte’s Safe and Sound Protocol and Focus programs using modified music, and she worked for over ten years as a trainer for Integrated Listening Systems. Additional topics of extensive study, certification, and training include reflex integration, feeding intervention, yoga therapeutics, and biofeedback for self-regulation and motor control. Ann is endorsed as an Advanced Transdisciplinary Mental Health Practitioner for the birth to five population and their families. Her post-professional doctorate in occupational therapy was a qualitative research project that explored the experience of immigrants to this country with children with different abilities.

Ann is grateful for the personal growth she has experienced serving racially and culturally diverse children and their families, and she looks forward to future mutual enrichment in her work with E3.

Michelle Batiste Blakely, MA, is a Visionary Leader Serving Bay Area Families Through Innovative Programs. She is an accomplished, dynamic leader with successful track record developing, launching and operating innovative programs serving young children and families, in both the public and private sectors. Demonstrated ability to collaborate with and engage diverse constituencies in state, local and federal agencies to achieve program objectives. A passionate, experienced educator and advocate in the fields of early learning, family support and children’s health.

She has extensive experience in direct service, child & family supports, facilitation and collective impact  having worked in F5SMC, Early Head Start, Early  Intervention, and private philanthropy for over 30 years

Her specialties include: Change Management, Organizational Development, Strategic Planning, Program Development and Administration, Program evaluation and compliance, Staff recruitment, training & supervision, Budget Development and P & L responsibility, Community outreach and engagement, Boards, Commission & Fundraising, and Media Spokesperson.

Michelle is committed to her personal  learning journey on the intersectionality of racism, caste and gender equality.

Andrew Shahan, MA has spent the last 30 years working with and learning from autistic children and their families in a variety of settings. Andrew served on the California State Legislative Blue Ribbon Commission on Autism. He holds a master’s degree in early childhood special education from San Francisco State University.

After some 15 years in direct work with children, Andrew shifted to coaching parents and professionals. In the years since, he has been working in large organizations empowering parents and professionals to support children’s communication, social and emotional development by providing training, coaching and consultation for staff and families. These included Kaiser Permanente, the University of California, Children’s Hospital, Oakland, Easter Seals and many California public schools.  Andrew's current focus is using video to enable parents and professionals to recognize and build on the initiatives and strengths of autistic children in everyday interactions. 

Andrew believes deeply that the voices of autistic individuals and their families must lead all efforts to improve care.  Andrew deep commitment to serve with love, kindness, openness, cultural humility, curiosity and empathy guide every aspect of his work.

Roni Rohr (she, her, hers) Roni teaches at El Dorado Community School K-8 in Santa Fe, NM, serves as the SFPS Visual Arts Mentor, and is a faculty member of the TAB Institute at MassArt. Advocating for student voice and agency, Roni is also a designer and artist, passionate about collaboration, social justice, and advocacy within her own work and that of her students. As an educational consultant, she collaborates on professional development for the New Mexico Museums, Meow Wolf, and others.Roni presents locally and nationally on topics of TAB, choice-based education, Design Thinking, and creating community; she was the 2020 keynote speaker for Colorado TAB. Roni is Nationally Board Certified in early and middle school art, a 2016 NM Golden Apple Fellow, the 2015 NM Middle School Art Educator of the Year, and the 2011 New Mexico Art Educator of the Year.

 
 
 
 
 

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