Our Advocacy Network in Action: Tyeesha Keele-Kedroe
Like many early educators, Tyeesha Keele-Kedroe loves children—and she has overcome adversities.
Some of that adversity began at age 7 when Keele-Kedroe was removed from her home and placed in foster care, a change that took her from Pittsfield, Mass., to Great Barrington, Mass. Fortunately, she recalls, “I was placed into a foster family that was very loving and supportive. My foster mother was well known in the community. She was African American. That community was not very diverse, so it was just amazing that I ended up with her. She was very strong. She attended a historically Black college, and she was very empowering to me.”
When Keele-Kedroe was young, she “always had a soft spot for children. When I was 16, I worked in a summer program at a Head Start.”
By age 20, she was the young mom of a daughter.
“I had all these things stacked up against me. I’m living in supportive housing. I’m figuring out how to parent. I’m figuring out how to pay my bills. I know I’m a good mom, especially given the adversity I was facing, but I didn’t have the confidence that I could be hired to work in a child care program.”
Keele-Kedroe was working at McDonald’s and using the child care program at Redfield House, where she was living. At that time, Redfield was a supportive housing program for young mothers. Keele-Kedroe enjoyed watching the classroom interactions and built relationships with her daughter’s teachers, starting in the infant room. One day, she ran into Elise Weller, the program director, who was waiting for a tardy job applicant.
You should hire me, Keele-Kedroe remembers joking, I would definitely have been here by now. Then Keele-Kedroe went to pick up her daughter, and five minutes later Weller came back, handed her a job application, and said, Fill this out. I think you’d be great.
“Elise saw something in me. So, at that moment, I thought I was joking, but it was probably me underestimating my skill set and my abilities.”
Weeks later, Keele-Kedroe began working as a classroom floater. When a more consistent position opened up in her daughter’s preschool classroom, she hesitated to accept it, because she wanted to keep some space between her and her child. But the team already had her in mind for the role. Once again, Weller encouraged her, pointing out that Keele-Kedrow was excited about the work, had a growing interest in curriculum development, and wanted to deepen her understanding of social-emotional learning.
So Keele-Kedroe moved into a full-time teaching role in the preschool classroom. Along the way, she also earned an associate degree in early childhood and two early childhood certificates at Berkshire Community College.
Today, Keele-Kedroe is an Education Site Manager at Berkshire County Head Start. She is married. She has a second child. She has a strong sense of having defied the odds that were stacked against her. And she is a member of the fourth cohort of Strategies for Children’s Advocacy Network.
A key ingredient in her work is lived experience—as well as kindness, grace, and treating people with dignity.
“I’ve gone through experiences that are similar to those of some of the families I’ve worked with. My parents struggled with addiction. I spent time in foster care. And I had my child at a young age. Because of that, I truly understand how difficult life can be. I never judge the families I support. Instead, I try to relate to them and do my best to help. I don’t have to tell people my story; somehow, they just connect with me.”
“Also, you have to celebrate small victories with people: getting a new job is huge; getting off food stamps is huge; deciding that your child is ready to be evaluated and might need an IEP [Individualized Education Program] is huge. Getting a new apartment is huge, whether it’s with a voucher or however you get it. Getting your car fixed is huge. Getting your driver’s license. These things need to be celebrated. And if people do backslide, I just say, What can we do to get you back on track?”
When it comes to the Advocacy Network, Keele-Kedroe says the best part is, “meeting a group of people who share a passion for advocacy in the field. And my cohort is also very diverse, so that’s spoken to me as well.”
The inspiration for Keele-Kedroe’s Advocacy Network project came from listening to Paula A. Echeverri Durango and Harold Blanco, alumni of the Advocacy Network’s third cohort, who talked about their project, which connects Spanish speaking educators on WhatsApp and encourages organizations and the Department of Early Education and Care to provide translation services.
“Because I believe representation matters, I wanted to create something that reflects that belief. The name of my advocacy project is EmpowerED Connections, and it focuses on supporting and uplifting educators who are underrepresented. You could be Black, Hispanic, or someone who genuinely supports our growth. Everyone is welcome. My goal is to build a space where we can connect, share resources, and advocate for meaningful change.”
Keele-Kedroe adds:
“My work isn’t just about supporting families. It’s also about empowering educators. Educators are so important; they’re the ones on the front lines every single day. Just because I’m in a different position now doesn’t mean I forget that. I work closely with teachers to make sure they feel supported, seen, and equipped with the resources they need. EmpowerED Connections is simply a continuation of that mission on a broader scale.”
To connect educators, Keele-Kedroe is starting with a Facebook group, and she’s hoping to organize an in-person gathering where participants can focus on topics such as building a support network and finding professional resources.
Encouraging representation in the field is important, Keele-Kedroe says, because there aren’t a lot of educators of color.
“I remember having two Black children in my preschool classroom, and one of the little girls said, Oh, when I grow up, I want to be Miss Tyeesha. I want to be a teacher just like you. I remember the pride in her face. And before I worked there, her mom was thinking about pulling her from the program because she just wasn’t connecting. I think that seeing something familiar in me, really, really helped.
“And personally, when I was put into foster care, even though my foster parents were people of color, the community where we lived was extremely White. We were one of three Black families. So as a foster child in elementary school, I didn’t meet anybody who looked like me, and that was really hard.”
“In seventh grade, my foster family moved to Rochester, New York. So on my first day of middle school, it was completely reversed. All I saw was Black and brown kids who looked just like me. That was my first experience having two African American male teachers. They were so uplifting to me, and they truly made a difference.
“But I also got teased. You know, You talk White. You act White. I’d never heard that before. I didn’t know that that was a thing. So I was trying to figure out who I was, and find my ‘Blackness.’ And what I discovered, what I’ve grown into, is this comfortability with being myself.
“I’m happy that I moved to Rochester, because it made me more aware of the culture as a whole. And ultimately, seeing people who looked like me helped me grow into myself.”
What does Keele-Kedroe want policymakers to know about her work?
“Child care is essential. We found that out during the pandemic.”
“There’s this notion that we’re glorified babysitters, but that’s not the case. We are laying the foundation for people to be successful. Child care is about the power of play. Some people don’t understand that, but what that really means is that we are constantly teaching children.
“We’re giving them the building blocks for social-emotional learning, which is important. It’s great when children know one plus one and two plus two, and when they can spell their names. But the real questions we should be asking are: Can children regulate their emotions? Can they express how an experience made them feel? Can they communicate in a way that others understand? Can they calm themselves down when they are upset?
“That’s the important work we do. And a good child care center makes connections with families. These children are an extension of their moms, dads, grandmas, aunties, foster families—whoever is raising them. There are amazing people behind these children, and there are amazing people working in child care, but they are struggling and they need support. And so in order to help that child grow, you also have to support the people who are raising and caring for that child. That’s the only way we all move forward, and doing so is imperative.”