To close out the conference, we’ll hear from Iheoma U. Iruka, Ph.D., award-winning tenured professor in the Department of Maternal and Child Health at the Gillings School of Global Public Health and the Founding Director of the Equity Research Action Coalition at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. As an applied developmental psychologist, Dr. Iruka is focused on ensuring that minoritized children and children from low-income households thrive during the prenatal through early childhood period by attending to their sociocultural assets and contexts. Her specialty is in early childhood development, adult-child interactions and relationships, and health, wealth, and education policies and programs that disrupt inequities and advance equity. Dr. Iruka has authored over 100 books and papers including her latest book, We Are the Change We Seek: Advancing Racial Justice in Early Care and Education.