Suzanne Stillinger has been working with young children for over 30 years. She began her career as a Children’s Service Advocate at Casa Myrna Vazquez in Boston, providing on-site care for children living in residential programs for unhoused survivors of domestic violence. Early on, she saw that the scope of her efforts to help improve the day-to-day lives of children and families was limited by harmful systems designed to make life difficult and ensure that only a limited few could prosper. She earned degrees in Early Childhood Education and Care from Greenfield Community College and in Psychology from Smith College as an Ada Comstock Scholar with Highest Honors. She taught in Head Start classrooms and ran outdoor summer programs along the way. She is currently teaching full time and co-directing part-time at New Village, a non-profit collective of family child care sites in Northampton, MA serving children birth-to-five, where she also serves as the accessibility coordinator. Since joining New Village, she has found ways to weave in all of the teaching and advocacy values that matter to her most. She is a Teach Plus Massachusetts Senior Policy Fellow, a Teach Plus Senior Writing Fellow, a Co-Facilitator of the Massachusetts Regional Work Group for Defending the Early Years under the guidance of Dr. Denisha Jones, and a 2024-25 Educators Neighborhood cohort member at The Fred Rogers Institute at Saint Vincent College.
