Rate My Professor Jennifer Mata-McMahon

Jennifer Mata-McMahon, Ed.D., is Professor of Early Childhood Education in the Department of Education at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), promoted to this tenured position in 2025 after serving as Associate Professor from 2021 to 2025. She directed the Sherman Center for Early Learning in Urban Communities from 2021 to 2024, with an annual budget of $580,000. Previously, she was Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Education at DePaul University from 2010 to 2018, Research Faculty at UMBC's Sherman Center from 2018 to 2021, and held faculty and research positions at Universidad Metropolitana in Venezuela and Teachers College, Columbia University. Since 1995, she has taught infant, toddler, preschool, kindergarten, middle school, undergraduate, and graduate courses in the US, Venezuela, and abroad, delivered professional development to public and private educators, and conducted program evaluations for non-profit organizations in India, New York, Illinois, and Maryland.

Dr. Mata-McMahon holds a B.A. (1996, Cum Laude) in Education-Leadership and Administration with a minor in Early Childhood Education from Universidad Metropolitana, Caracas, Venezuela; M.A. (1998), Ed.M. (1999), and Ed.D. (2010) in Curriculum and Teaching from Teachers College, Columbia University, with emphases in Early Childhood Education and Bilingual/Bicultural Education; her dissertation examined Children’s Spirituality as Experienced and Expressed in a Kindergarten Classroom. Her research focuses on early childhood education for children aged 0-8, bilingual/bicultural education, children’s spirituality, teacher preparation, and program evaluation via qualitative and mixed-methods approaches. Key publications include Children’s Spirituality in Early Childhood Education: Theory to Practice (2024, Routledge, with P. Escarfuller); The Bloomsbury Handbook of Culture and Identity from Early Childhood to Early Adulthood (2021, co-editor, Bloomsbury); Spiritual Experiences in Early Childhood Education (2015, Routledge); Spirituality: An Interdisciplinary View (2016, co-editor); Ambiente en Acción (2006, co-author); and peer-reviewed articles such as “How U.S. Early Childhood Educators Understand Children’s Spirituality: A Framework of Essence, Origin, and Action” (2024, Early Childhood Education Journal, with M.J. Haslip and S. Hossain) and “Sustainability of a Dual Language Program During and Beyond COVID-19 Challenges” (2024, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism). Awards include the 2024 Excellence in Teaching and Innovative Pedagogy Award from UMBC’s Latinx and Hispanic Faculty Association and the 2022 McNair Mentor of the Year Award.