Meet the Team

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Dr. Emily Evans Fanaeian is an educator and researcher with more than twenty years of experience across early childhood, K–12, higher education, and national-level program evaluation. She has taught everything from early childhood to graduate school, supervises student teachers, and has prepared educators in subjects such as second language acquisition and teaching methodologies, bilingual curriculum and assessment, and children’s literature. Her expertise also includes language assessment development, curriculum design, and program evaluation for schools, grants, and innovative instructional models

Emily and Erin Arango-Escalante first worked together at WIDA, where they bonded over the joys and challenges of motherhood and the balance of work and family, while pursuing access and equity for culturally and linguistically diverse students across the U.S. Their shared vision for supporting educators and families made collaboration through All Children Thrive a natural fit, where Emily now serves as a researcher

Emily holds a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction (Teacher Education and ESL) from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, along with degrees in Elementary Education and Spanish (BS, Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania), a program specialist certificate in ESL (Penn State), and an MA in TESOL (American University). Married to a first-generation immigrant and the mother of three children, Emily also serves on her local school board, where she works to ensure schools are responsive to the needs of all families. At the heart of Emily’s work is a belief that education is the most important investment a society can make. She is dedicated to ensuring that schools and communities are responsive to the needs of all children—especially those whose voices too often go unheard.