Ellen Friedland

Ellie Friedland, Ph.D, is Associate Clinical Professor of Early Childhood Education at Boston University Wheelock College of Education and Human Development. Prior to her time at BU, Ellie was an Associate Professor for twenty years at Wheelock College.

She served on the founding Faculty Alliance to create the new BU Institute for Early Childhood Wellbeing, and currently serves on its Partnership Board. Ellie frequently presents at state, national and international conferences and provides professional development for Early Childhood Education professionals on anti-bias culturally responsive education, teaching through drama and movement, and creating welcoming environments for LGBTQIA+ families and staff and for children with gender expansive behaviors and/or identities. She has published a book and a number of articles on this work, with a focus on culturally competent teaching and learning, as well as on teaching through drama and Theatre of the Oppressed.

Ellie teaches Social Change Through Theatre of the Oppressed in the BU School of Theatre and is a teaching artist in the education program of the Wheelock Family Theatre.
Ellie works with teachers and human rights workers in Guatemala, serving on the US Board of UPAVIM (United for a Better Life) a women’s collective in Guatemala City and the US Board of CEIPA, a not-for-profit organization in Quetzeltanango that provides alternative public education, including advocacy for human rights to child laborers.