Shantel Meek

Shantel Meek, PhD
Founding Executive Director
Professor of Practice
Children's Equity Project, Arizona State University

Dr. Meek is a Professor of Practice and the Founding Executive Director of the Children Equity Project. Prior to founding the CEP, Dr. Meek served in the Obama Administration as a Senior Policy Advisor for Early Childhood Development at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and as a Senior Policy Advisor for Education in the Domestic Policy Council at the White House. During her time in the Obama Administration, Dr. Meek advised senior officials at HHS and The White House on a wide array of policy issues including Head Start, child care, public pre-K expansion, and promoting equity across the early care and education system. Dr. Meek served on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine consensus committee exploring the opportunity gap in children birth to age 8. She has published pieces in the New York Times and the Washington Post. Dr. Meek serves on the boards of Child Trends and the Pyramid Model Consortium and is a member of the Ideal Learning Roundtable. Dr. Meek holds a B.A. in Psychology and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Family and Human Development from Arizona State University. Her personal experiences as a Mexican America first-generation college graduate from a small border town inform her work and contribute to her drive to improve the learning conditions of children from historically marginalized communities. Today, she lives in Phoenix with her husband and two children, both of whom are growing up bilingual.