A New Approach to Building Family Engagement Pathways: The 5Rs Framework

Panelists

Margaret Caspe is a senior research analyst at Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP). Her research focuses on how families, early childhood programs, schools, and communities support children’s learning. As part of the HFRP team, Margaret co-leads the Libraries for the 21st Century Project and develops materials to prepare educators for family engagement. Margaret received her PhD in Applied Psychology from The Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development at New York University and holds an EdM from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is based in New Jersey where she and her 3 daughters count spending time at the library among their favorite activities.

Michelle Jeske is the Denver city librarian, head of the 26-location urban library system which sees more than 4.4 million people in its buildings annually. Michelle has worked for the Denver Public Library since 2001 and was appointed city librarian in 2015. The library's number one priority is that all Denver children enjoy reading and learning and flourish in school and life. To reach that outcome, the library focuses on outreach to parents and caregivers in the community, inter-generational programming for immigrants and refugees and novel ways to engage families in learning. Michelle is also a member of the PLA Family Engagement Task Force.

Lesley Graham is a member of Save the Children’s National Education and Health Team for U.S. Programs. In this role, she leads Save the Children’s Family and Community Engagement programming, as well as the Healthy Choices physical activity and nutrition program. Save the Children prioritizes their domestic work in rural, under-resourced schools and communities across the United States. The family and community engagement work conducted by Save the Children expands across the P–3 continuum, supporting children and families prenatally through 3rd grade. Lesley supports approximately 150 sites across the country, including the provision of technical leadership and strategic planning, program quality assurance, training development and delivery, and program design and development. She obtained both her Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in Family Sciences from the University of Kentucky.