INTRODUCING WHITNEY!
INTERESTS
• Curriculum Development
• Underserved Youth
• Project Collaboration
• Positive Behavioral Interventions/Supports
• Special Education
• Compliance/Individualized
• Education Plans
• Secondary Education
• Conference Proposals
• Presentation Development
• Mass Incarceration/Children of
• Incarcerated Parents
• Primary Education
• Peer Reviewer
ABOUT ME
Whitney Q. Hollins, PH.D.
Advocate, Researcher, Educator,Justice Impacted Individual
Whitney Hollins is an advocate for children who have a parent involved in the justice system. As the daughter of a formerly incarcerated parent, her direct experience has led her to explore the ways these children navigate and negotiate with the unique set of circumstances that incarceration presents. As a researcher and educator, she believes that teachers play a vital role in supporting children with a justice involved parent. Hollins currently works as a research assistant at We Got Us Now, an elementary school special education teacher and an adjunct instructor at various CUNY colleges, where she instructs graduate level students who plan to work with children. She is also a member of the Justice Across Generations Speakers Bureau through The Osborne Association. She holds a Ph.D. in Urban Education from the CUNY Graduate Center. Her dissertation focused on children who have justice involved parents with an emphasis on lived experience as expertise.
EDUCATION
PH.D., URBAN EDUCATION
CUNY Graduate Center, New York, NY
February 2019
MASTERS OF TEACHING, EARLY
CHILDHOOD/SPECIAL EDUCATION
CUNY Queens College, Flushing, NY
Honors: Kappa Delta Phi Honor Society
July 2010
BACHELOR OF SCIENCE, JOURNALISM
St. John’s University, Jamaica, NY
Honors: Cum Laude
May 2008
CERTIFICATIONS AND AFFILIATIONS
Special Education, Professional Certification
August 2010
NY, NY
Childhood Education, Professional Certification
August 2010
NY, NY
Osborne Association, Speaker’s Bureau
The Speakers Bureau advances the policy changes related to two
priority areas for the Osborne Center for Justice Across Generations:
children and families affected by incarceration and aging in prison and
elderly reentry.
We Got Us Now, Research Department
The mission of We Got Us Now is to create safe and inclusive spaces, produce
compelling content and build a supportive community, both online and offline,
that will engage, educate, elevate and empower, children and young adults
impacted by the trauma, stigma and shame of parental incarceration.
PUBLICATIONS
Hollins, W.Q., Krupat, T., Underwood,
E. (2019). About us, for us, with us:
Collaboration as the key to progress in
research, practice and policy. In Eddy,
J.M. & Poehlmann-Tynan, J. (Ed.),
Handbook on children of incarcerated
parents: Research, policy, and practice,
2nd Edition (Chapter 21). New York,
NY: Springer International Publishing.
Hollins, W.Q. (2018). Guilty by
association: A critical analysis of how
imprisonment affects the children of
those behind bars. CUNY Academic
Commons, 1-221.
Hollins, W.Q. (2018). The Importance
of Vulnerability in the Classroom
Sevenzo.com.
Hollins, W.Q. (2018). Whitney’s Story:
The Importance of Fatherhood We
Got Us Now.
Hollins, W.Q. (2015). Are Private
Schools Required to Evaluate for
Special Education? Understood.org
Hollins, W.Q. (2015). Can Afterschool
Programs help my child build social
skills? Understood.org.
Cerat, M.L. & Hollins, W.Q. (2014). An
Integration Plan That Never Was:
Looking for Brown v. Board of
Education in the New York City Board
of Education’s 1954 Commission on
Integration Theory, Research, and Action
in Urban Education, 21.
PRESENTATIONS
Care Culture and Safe Spaces for (In)visible Youth
South by Southwest Education, Austin, TX
March 2019
National Conference for Children of Incarcerated Parents
Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ
April 2019
Punishing Trauma, Columbia University
New York, NY
April 2019
EdxEDNYC, Hudson School for Technologies
New York, NY
2019
Impact of Incarceration on Families and Children
United Nations International School, New York, NY
November 2018
Vanessa’s Story: The Collateral Damage of Mass Incarceration
Black Doctoral Network, Charlotte, NC
October 2018
The Kid in the Class No One’s Talking About: Teaching Kids with Incarcerated Parents
Real Rap with Reynolds, Queens, NY
July 2018
Hidden Among Us: Identifying and Supporting Children with Incarcerated Parents
EDxEDNYC, New York, NY
June 2018
The Impact of Mass Incarceration
We Got Us Now, New York, NY
October 2017
See Us, Support Us Closing Event
Osborne Association, Brooklyn, NY
October 2017
A Matter of Urgency: Perspectives on and Strategies for building and
Maintaining Attachment During a Parent’s Incarceration
Zero-to-Three Network, New York, NY
July 2017
