Sheresa Boone Blanchard, Ph.D. is an associate professor at East Carolina University in the department of Human Development and Family Science. She primarily teaches courses and supervises interns in the birth through kindergarten teacher education program, a blended licensure area in North Carolina. Dr. Blanchard currently serves as co-chair of the Division for Early Childhood’s Inclusion, Equity, and Social Justice Committee and serves as a governor-appointed commissioner for the North Carolina Child Care Commission as well as other state and local level initiatives and boards. She received the Merle B. Karnes Award for Service to the Division for Early Childhood in 2018. Dr. Blanchard’s research and teaching focus on family/community engagement, inclusion, families of color, assessment, early intervention, and improving teacher preparation competencies through lenses of intersectionality, equity, and social justice. Her scholarly interests emerged from over 20 years of experience as a teacher, practitioner and consultant in early childhood, special education, and early intervention. In Fall 2020, she was appointed to the ECU Rural Education Institute as an Associate Faculty member to sharpen her research focus on the strengths and needs in rural education and early intervention.