Paige M. Bray, Ed.D. – Director of the Center for Montessori Studies and Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education at the University of Hartford, Connecticut, USA. She maintains her own learning edge and relevance by developing digital educational spaces as a co-founder of Planes of Learning. She has worked with colleagues, allies and accomplices in community to address systemic inequities for over three decades. Her teaching expertise focuses on the personal “reflexes” and professional identity transitions fostered through dynamic inquiry and the use of meta-cognitive tools with both undergraduate and graduate level pre-service teachers as well as credentialed teachers across the career continuum. An activist for children and families, Dr. Bray’s research is grounded by a community context and consistently emphasizes human capacity as knowledge producers as well as knowledge consumers. Bray is a National Commissioner for the National Association for the Education of Young Children (USA) and an alumna of the Institute for Management and Leadership in Education Program at Harvard University. She earned her B.A. and M.Ed. from Sarah Lawrence College and her Ed.D. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Bray integrates her research, theory, and practice through the URBAN network by focusing on public scholarship.
Sundeep Muppidi, Ph.D. is the Associate Provost/Director for Special Programs at Eastern Connecticut State University. He is also a tenured Professor of Communication at the University of Hartford with over 25 years of teaching experience at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Dr Muppidi is a Fellow of the American Council of Education and an Alumnus of the Management Development Program at Harvard University with over fifteen years of experience in higher education administration.
Joshua A. Russell, PhD. – Director of Research at the Center for Montessori Studies, Professor of Music Education at the University of Hartford, Connecticut, USA, and managing partner of the Planes of Learning, LLC. Dr. Russell received a Bachelor of Arts degree (Music Composition) and a Bachelor of Secondary Education (Music Education) from Shepherd University, a Master of Music degree from Northwestern University, and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in music from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Dr. Russell’s research interests include musician health, teacher education, and psycho-social/cognitive development in learning and teaching. In addition to authoring Statistics in Music Education Research (Oxford University Press), his research publication record includes articles published in numerous research journals. He often presents research throughout the United States and beyond including Ireland, England, Germany, China, Australia, Finland, Greece, Norway, Belgium, and Cyprus.