Academy of Community Engagement Scholarship (ACES)

Jacqueline Shannon

Inducted in
2025

Brooklyn College, City University of New York

Professor

Founding Chair, Early Childhood Education/Art Education Department

Photo of Jacqueline Shannon

Biographical Abstracts

Jacqueline Shannon, professor and founding chair of the Early Childhood/Art Education Department at Brooklyn College – CUNY, has dedicated over 30 years to addressing inequities in early education, early intervention (EI), and infant mental health. Her work spans local and global under-resourced communities, focusing on child development, parenting, and parent-child relationships and has been published in top-tier journals, policy reports, and opinion pieces in the New York Times and Washington Post. She has delivered 17 invited and 78 juried conference papers.

Shannon collaborates with United for Brownsville and NYC’s Bureau of Early Intervention to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in EI enrollment for Black and Latinx children. She serves on NYC boards like Class Size Matters and Chances for Children–NY, advocating for smaller classes and supporting parent-child relationships. She co-chairs NYC’s Bureau of Early Intervention (BEI) Academic Preparation/Professional Development working group. Her international work includes coaching colleagues in India to improve NICU and EI services.

Shannon’s curriculum innovations include NYC’s first Advanced Certificate in EI and Parenting, developed with NYC’s BEI (2014), which influenced NYSDOH EI competency reforms. She led the creation of NY’s first Advanced Certificate in Perinatal Mental Health (launching fall 2025) to recruit diverse professionals and address workforce shortages and disparities in perinatal health and mental health.

 Before joining BC, Shannon was an NYU research scientist on the National EHS Research project and NICHD postdoctoral fellow. She directed a home-based parenting program and co-developed an EI program in East Harlem. Shannon holds a Ph.D. in developmental psychology from NYU and a master’s in education in EI from Northern Illinois University.

Areas of Expertise

  • Child development and parent-child relationships
  • Early intervention, infant mental health, and early care and education
  • Community partnerships
  • Engagement and systems change
  • Public and education policy