Early Risers

When the world feels uncertain, children look to the adults they trust for answers. But what happens when the people children are taught to see as "helpers" don't always make them feel safe? Dianne Haulcy sits down with Emma Swift Lee, director of the Fred Rogers Institute, to explore how caregivers can have honest, age-appropriate conversations about race, fear and safety. Together they discuss why children need truthful answers and how simple, reassuring conversations can help them make sense of difficult events while preserving hope. Inspired by Fred Rogers' work, Emma shares practical strategies for talking with young children about scary news, redefining what it means to be a helper and reminding every child that they are loved, valued and worthy just as they are.

Emma Swift Lee is the Director of the Fred Rogers Institute at Saint Vincent College, where she works with educators and caregivers to support the interactions and relationships that help children grow and learn. Emma and her colleagues are continually learning from Fred Rogers' legacy and practical scholarship in child development in order to develop professional learning and community-building opportunities for children's helpers. Before joining the institute, Emma worked at the RAND Corporation as a policy analyst. Her work included research, evaluation and technical assistance for projects in early childhood and K-12 education in both rural and urban settings. She holds an Ed.M. in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University and a B.A. in Psychology from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Fred Rogers Institute – Practical tools, articles, and videos for helping children navigate difficult conversations, emotions, and challenging current events.

Fred Rogers Productions – Parenting resources, free family activities and conversation starters focused on emotions, kindness, empathy and building resilience.

Sesame Workshop: See Us Coming Together – Age-appropriate resources that help families talk about race, identity, belonging and community through stories and activities.

PBS KIDS for Parents – Activities and conversation starters about feelings, kindness, community and current events.

When immigration raids and stories of racial profiling make headlines, young children notice. They hear conversations, ask difficult questions and often bring their worries into play. In this episode, Host Dianne Haulcy talks with Marie Lister of the University of Minnesota Child Development Laboratory School and Debbie LeeKeenan, co-founder of Anti-Bias Leaders ECE, about how educators can respond with honesty, compassion and confidence. Lister shares how preschoolers processed fears about immigration enforcement through dramatic play and classroom conversations, while LeeKeenan explains why avoiding children's questions can leave them to make sense of injustice on their own. Together, they explore practical ways adults can acknowledge fear without creating more anxiety, talk openly about fairness and belonging, and help children see themselves, and others, as valued members of their communities.

Debbie LeeKeenan is the co-founder and co-director of Anti-Bias Leaders ECE and a nationally recognized educator, author, and consultant with more than 50 years of experience in early childhood education. A former teacher, center director and university faculty member, she is a leading voice in anti-bias education and family engagement, and producer of two recent award-winning anti-bias films for educators and families. She is a Chinese American, born of an immigrant working class family and part of a mixed-race family.

Marie Lister is the director of teaching and research at the University of Minnesota’s Child Development Lab School. She has been a preschool teacher for 18 years, and is passionate about inclusive, child-centered learning environments. She also works as a coach with Young Hearts, Open Minds, helping educators learn how to talk about race and racism with young children and create anti-bias learning environments grounded in belonging and equity.

Anti-Bias Leaders ECE - Professional learning and practical tools to help adults foster identity, diversity, justice and action in early childhood.

“All Are Welcome” by Alexandra Penfold and Suzanne Kaufman - A picture book that celebrates inclusion, belonging, and diverse classrooms.

“NAEYC Guide for Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves,” Second Edition -
A foundational guide to helping young children develop positive identities and recognize fairness and inclusion.

Learning For Justice - Free classroom and family resources that help adults teach about diversity, fairness, and belonging.

When immigration raids and news headlines dominate conversations, children notice, even when adults think they're too young to understand. In this episode, host Dianne Haulcy reflects on Minnesota's federal immigration enforcement operation and talks with Season 7 Host Andre Dukes about why families need honest, age-appropriate conversations during uncertain times. You'll hear from play therapist and author Olivia Garcia, who explains how stories can help children make sense of difficult events while reinforcing that they belong. You’ll also hear from children's mental health specialist Brandon Jones, who shares practical strategies for limiting harmful media exposure, answering tough questions and helping young children feel supported. Together, they explore how race, identity and community shape children's experiences and why calm, truthful conversations are one of the most powerful tools adults have to build resilience.

Andre Dukes is a widely respected early childhood leader based in Minneapolis and trusted expert on the topic of identity development. Andre was the featured guest on the inaugural episode of Early Risers in 2021 and served as the podcast’s host in 2025. Andre has spent the last decade of his career focused on child development and academic success in North Minneapolis, a community with a deeply rooted history of strategic disinvestment and racial segregation. Andre serves as vice president of family and community impact at Northside Achievement Zone, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit.

Olivia Garcia’s “Outside Our Window” e-book.

Meeting the Moment: How to talk with young children about ICE in our communities, a conversation with Andre Dukes, Olivia Garcia and Brandon Jones.

National Child Traumatic Stress Network - Guides for talking with children after traumatic or frightening events, recognizing stress responses, and promoting healing.

“Something Happened In Our Town” children’s book - Helps adults discuss racial injustice and community violence with young children in an age-appropriate way.

National Immigrant Justice Center – Know Your Rights – Legal rights information and family preparedness resources for immigrant communities.

In this second episode of a two-part series, we continue our conversation with Dr. Anne Gearity about her seminal work in developmental repair. In our previous episode we learned about the basics of developmental repair and how caregivers help dysregulated children become regulated. But what happens when a caregiver doesn’t look like the child, or is not part of their community? Dr. Gearity explains how building a “bridge” with the child can help the child feel safe and help the caregiver earn the child’s trust.

We also learn what developmental repair looks like on the ground. Chantell Johnson, a practitioner of Dr. Gearity’s model, says when kids “don't have the language to tell you, they'll show you.” And that can be confusing for adults who are working with pre-verbal children. But it can be equally confusing for the child, who also may not understand their own behavior. “Kids are really doing the best they can with what they have, even when it's inappropriate.”

Dr. Anne Gearity earned her Ph.D. in clinical social work from the Institute for Clinical Social Work in Chicago, IL. Research from her dissertation was foundational for Developmental Repair, an intervention manual for behaviorally challenged and challenging children, written in collaboration with the Washburn Center for Children in Minneapolis. This manual is now used extensively throughout the state. She taught for 25 years at the University of Minnesota School of Social Work and was faculty of the U of M’s Infant and Early Child Mental Health Certificate program in the Institute for Child Development.

Chantell Johnson is an MSW Candidate at the University of Minnesota. She’s also the Community Wellness Program Manager & Family Academy Facilitator at the Northside Achievement Zone in Minneapolis, MN.

Northside Achievement Zone

Dr. Rita Pierson - Every Child Needs a Champion

Developmental Repair Manual (2012, Gearity)

Dr. Anne Gearity University of Minnesota Dept of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

When Dr. Anne Gearity earned her master’s in social work in 1974, the field of Early Childhood was just beginning. As she puts it, “We started to pay attention and really think about what children need not just to survive, but to thrive—and that they can be resilient.” That focus on the child has guided her work ever since. Over five decades, her research led to a new approach for treating childhood trauma: Developmental Repair. In part one of this two-part series, host Andre Dukes talks with Dr. Gearity about what she’s learned from working with children and how caregivers can better understand behavior as a form of communication.

Dr. Anne Gearity earned her Ph.D. in clinical social work from the Institute for Clinical Social Work in Chicago, IL. Research from her dissertation was foundational for Developmental Repair, an intervention manual for behaviorally challenged and challenging children, written in collaboration with the Washburn Center for Children in Minneapolis. This manual is now used extensively throughout the state. She taught for 25 years in the University of Minnesota School of Social Work and was faculty of the U of M’s Infant and Early Child Mental Health Certificate program in the Institute for Child Development. She completed a master’s in social work from the Fordham University Graduate School of Social Work of New York, NY, and has had an independent mental health practice that serves children, adolescents and adults since 1987.

 Her initial role in psychiatry was teaching normal child development to child and adolescent psychiatry fellows. In 2017, she started the family consult clinic to help families navigate potentially confusing diagnoses, treatment plans and related family needs, and provide fellowship with family engagement experiences.

Seminal 1991 report on Childhood Trauma

Romanian Orphans

Developmental Repair Manual (2012, Gearity)

Dr. Anne Gearity University of Minnesota Dept of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

The Dakota Language Nest is a preschool where children are developing their identity through immersion in Dakota culture, traditions and language. In this episode we spend a day with the children as they practice the traditions of smudging, tobacco harvesting, singing songs and showing respect and gratitude for the natural world’s gifts. We speak with lead teacher, Katie Bendickson, about the importance of keeping the language alive, and how the language and traditions are intertwined. We also speak with Nicole Cavender, a Dakota woman whose son attends the language nest: “I wanted to give them what I didn't have and wanted, which wasn't just language, it wasn't just answers to questions, but it's really about belonging, and belonging doesn't happen without community.”

Wóokiye wiŋ | Katie Bendickson
Lead Teacher, Dakhódiapi Wahóȟpi | Dakota Language Nest
University of Minnesota Child Development Laboratory School

Wóokiye wiŋ | Katie Bendickson spent much of her young life on her mother’s reservation, Fond du Lac Reservation in northern Minnesota, before her family moved to her father’s reservation at Upper Sioux Community in southwest Minnesota.

Bendickson is Sisseton Wahpeton Dakhóta. She began learning the Dakota language in high school at Yellow Medicine Senior High, but it wasn’t until college that the language truly captivated her. It transformed her sense of identity, reshaped her worldview and helped her along her personal healing journey.

Her main teaching enthusiasm is nature-based and play-based learning for young children in the Dakota language medium.

Dakota Language Nest

Truth telling: Rethinking Thanksgiving: How to speak to young children about historical and racialized trauma

 MN Humanities Center - Learning from Place: Bdote

What’s the difference between a mirror book and a window book? For part two of our Identity through Words and Images series, we go on location to climb aboard Babycake’s Book Stack bookmobile! We learn the importance of children seeing characters that look like they do, how that impacts their sense of self, and how seeing books about others broadens their sense of community. Owner Zsamé Morgan underscores the importance of family literacy and offers guidance on how to get started. We also hear from children’s book illustrators on how they approach their work. We explore how a book’s images can shape a child’s identity just as much as the text, especially among infants and toddlers, and how illustrators think about their role when choosing shapes and hues.

Zsamé Morgan
Owner, Babycake’s Book Stack

Zsamé Morgan is the owner of Babycake’s Book Stack, a children's bookstore on wheels that focuses on family literacy, culture, language and community throughout the Twin Cities — a hub of many diverse people. In 2017, Morgan bought a 33-foot bookmobile from a library in Indiana and opened it up to the public in 2019. Her mobile bookstore carries a highly curated inventory of baby board books, children's, middle school and young adult (YA) books designed to include the culture and/or languages of Indigenous, immigrant, refugee, African American children and children of many other multicultural backgrounds.

Discussion Guide

Babycake’s Book Stack Resources for Family Literacy

Babycake’s Book Stack Bookmobile Schedule

Meleck Davis

Yuyi Morales

Rob Liu-Trujillo

Resmaa Menakem’s bestselling text “My Grandmother’s Hands” deals with the visceral impact of racialized trauma. But is it important for children to understand the legacy of these wounds? And how do we begin to take up such a weighty topic with young children? We sit down with authors Resmaa Menakem and T. Mychael Rambo to understand how a children’s book can provide an invitation for parents and caregivers to begin to acknowledge the trauma. As Menakem says, “Something happened and continues to happen to you and your people, and you have to tend to that.”

Resmaa Menakem and T. Mychael Rambo
Co-Authors, “The Stories from My Grandmother’s Hands”

Resmaa Menakem and T. Mychael Rambo teamed up with illustrator Leroy Campbell to co-author a companion children’s book to Menakem’s New York Times bestseller “My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies.” Menakem is a therapist and licensed clinical worker specializing in racialized trauma, communal healing, and cultural first aid based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His groundbreaking work has reshaped conversations on race and trauma, guiding others toward deep, embodied change. T. Mychael is a Minneapolis-based actor, author, community organizer and public speaker.

“Stories from my Grandmother’s Hands”

“My Grandmother’s Hands” - Resmaa Menakem

“1619 Project” - Nikole Hannah-Jones

Alvin Toffler

A child’s sense of self is shaped by their understanding of where they come from: their culture, history and heritage. But how a child begins to develop that understanding heavily depends on their having the tools to study themselves and the world around them. Host Andre Dukes speaks with Gevonee Ford, founder and executive director of Network for the Development of Children of African Descent, about the importance of literacy in a child’s identity development.

Gevonee Ford
Founder and Executive Director
Network for the Development of Children of African Descent

Gevonee Ford is the Founder and Executive Director of Network for the Development of Children of African Descent, a family education and literacy center that was established in 1997 and based in Minneapolis, MN. Over the past 40 years, Gevonee has worked in the fields of early childhood and K-12 education, specializing in program development, nonprofit management and education policy. Gevonee has been at the forefront of progressive education in Minnesota serving as a teacher, trainer, program director and community organizer. His work has been recognized at national, state and local levels. He has received numerous awards including being named a 2012 White House Champion of Change.

Dr Mulana Karenga

Dr Asa Hilliard- bio

NDCAD’s Sankofa Reading Program

NDCAD’s Parent Power Program

New host Andre Dukes sits down with Early Risers’ founding host Dianne Haulcy to reflect on the origins of this podcast. Just days after the murder of George Floyd, Haulcy penned a wakeup call to her peers in early childhood education on the realities of racism and implicit bias in how we raise our children. That message ultimately became Haulcy’s personal call to action, and the foundation for the Early Risers podcast. Haulcy shares her favorite podcast episodes and offers advice to Dukes as he takes the reins. We also learn about Dukes’ uniquely personal connection to the location where George Floyd lost his life, nearly 50 years earlier, well before it became George Floyd Square. 

Dianne Haulcy
Former Host, Early Risers 
Assistant Commissioner, Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families 

Following the killing of George Floyd, early childhood leader Dianne Haulcy wrote a blogpost in which she called on colleagues and peers to wake up to the realities of racism and implicit bias in how we raise and teach our children. That message planted the seed for Early Risers, a podcast about racial equity in early childhood and the hope of raising a generation who will bring a new dawn of racial equity for the future. Dianne hosted Early Risers until 2024, when she was appointed Assistant Commissioner of Early Childhood at the Minnesota Department of Children Youth and Families. 

• How Children’s Books can be Tools for Resistance: A Conversation with Dr. Ibram X. Kendi  
• We Are the Same and We Are Different; How to Talk about Diversity with White Kids in White Communities Louise Derman-Sparks 
• What If All the Kids Are White?: Anti-Bias Multicultural Education with Young Children and Families by Louise Derman-Sparks 
• Understanding Racial Identity in Young Children Dr. Toni Sturdivant 
• Navigating Parenthood as Black Parents in a Growing Minnesota City Kai and James Miller