Community of Practice for IHE Faculty

Alissa A. Lange, Ph.D., is a Professor of Early Childhood Education and the Director of the Early Childhood STEM Lab and the Center of Excellence in STEM Education at East Tennessee State University. Alissa has led and co-led early math, science, and integrated STEM teaching and learning research and program initiatives for over 18 years, with funding of over $3M. She is the co-PI of the Early-Elementary STEM Collaboration, a pre-service teacher preparation model focused on early and elementary science and integrated STEM. She has more than 100 presentations and publications, including as an author of the “Early Years” column for NSTA’s Science & Children, “Teaching STEM in the Preschool Classroom: Exploring Big Ideas with 3- to 5-Year-Olds,” published in 2019 by Teachers College Press, and the Open Educational Resource (OER) textbook, “Teaching Early and Elementary STEM.”

Amie A. Perry, M.A., is a graduate student at East Tennessee State University pursuing a doctoral degree in Early Childhood Education and she works as the Center Coordinator in the Center of Excellence in STEM Education (CESE) where she coordinates a variety of birth-career STEM programs. Additionally, in her role of Assistant Director for EC STEM Lab, she facilitates and organizes innovative professional learning programs for educators and collaborates with them to highlight their STEM work in a variety of ways. Amie’s prior degrees are both in Early Childhood Education and throughout her career her work has focused on infants and toddlers. She currently leads a program for children and families to connect with one another and the earth at Seedkeepers Forest School. She lives in Jonesborough, TN with her husband and daughter.

For over 26 years, Dr. Yvette Meré-Cook has worked as an early intervention and school-based occupational therapist within underrepresented communities. Her drive to make an impact led her to pursue a doctoral degree in Special Education at the University of San Francisco.  Her research focuses on investigating inclusive practices that leverage the strengths of young children with disabilities to address challenges that create barriers to their development.  At Boise State University, Yvette partnered with early childhood educators to provide professional development on embedding early inclusive STEAM learning within early childhood care and classrooms for children birth through five years old.  This research led to a first-of-its-kind study that used an evidence-based preschool engineering curriculum with children with and without disabilities in an inclusive classroom.  This work led to consultant work with STEMIE (STEM Innovations for Inclusion in Early Education) and to her next academic appointment University of California, Davis’s Center for Child and Family Studies/Early Childhood Laboratory where Yvette continued to develop inclusive preschool programs and research inclusive early childhood STEAM education.  Yvette recently published a book with Columbia University’s Teachers College Press, titled Inclusive STEAM Education in Early Childhood (2025).   Currently, Yvette is an Associate Professor within the Occupational Therapy Programs at Samuel Merritt University and is the Principal Investigator of an exploratory pilot study focused on partnering with parents and caregivers of children with disabilities to embed early STEAM learning within daily activities and play.  Yvette continues to work as a school-based occupational therapist within inclusive public schools and enjoys staying active by hiking with her dogs and playing flag football with her family.