mohrlone@uw.edu

Director Jana Mohr Lone is the founder of the University of Washington Center for Philosophy for Children. For more than 25 years, she has been teaching philosophy to students from preschool to college and beyond. She is the author of  The Philosophical Child, which has been translated into four languages; co-author of Philosophy in Education: Questioning and Dialogue in Schools; co-editor of Philosophy and Education: Introducing Philosophy to Young People; and she has written numerous articles about children's philosophical thinking. Her newest book is Seen and Not Heard, published by Rowman and Littlefield in 2021. Jana is the founding president of PLATO (Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization), the founding editor-in-chief of the journal Questions: Philosophy for Young People, from 2009 to 2015 the chair of the American Philosophical Association Committee on Pre-College Instruction in Philosophy, and she writes the blog Wondering Aloud: Philosophy with Young People. She lives with her family on Bainbridge Island, Washington. Follow her on Twitter: @JanaMohrLone

emmerman@uw.edu

Education Director Karen S. Emmerman started teaching philosophy classes at John Muir Elementary in 2010 and has worked as their Philosopher-in-Residence since 2013. She also taught philosophy for a semester at Nova High School. Karen helps design Center programs and curriculum, facilitates teacher trainings in pre-college philosophy, organizes parent/community outreach events, and serves on the Center’s board. She teaches one of UW’s philosophy for children classes and mentors graduate and undergraduate students. These days, she also spends time creating online teacher and parent resources for during the pandemic.  Karen is part-time faculty in the philosophy department at the University of Washington and writes in ecofeminism, animal ethics, and philosophy for children. Find out more about her at KarenSEmmerman.com

tdebi@uw.edu

Program Director Debi Talukdar has been facilitating philosophy classes for K-12 students in a variety of learning environments since 2014 and is the Philosopher-in-Residence at Thurgood Marshall Elementary School. At the Center, where she is a board member and former fellow, Debi helps organize a monthly philosophy seminar for educators, facilitate training workshops, design Center programs, and mentor graduate and undergraduate students. Debi is also Executive Director at PLATO and is closely involved with their research efforts. She is a PhD candidate at the UW College of Education and a former instructor in their Early Childhood and Family Studies program. Her dissertation explores the experience of in-service teachers participating in philosophical inquiry. Her other interests include facilitating conversations around issues of equity and inclusion with Theater for Change UW. 

kgoldyn@uw.edu

Outreach Coordinator Katherine Goldyn manages the Center's activities and website. She is also the outreach coordinator for University of Washington's Department of Philosophy. Prior to working for the Department of Philosophy she was the outreach and events coordinator for University of Washington's School of Drama. She is also has three children who enjoy asking philosophical questions. Please contact her with any questions regarding the website or the Center for Philosophy for Children events and activities.

Ken Clatterbaugh is a retired professor of philosophy who  believes that people learn best by thinking carefully about the reasons they cherish certain ideas and by never forgetting to find the humor around them. He and his spouse Linda live on the Olympic Peninsula where they share their home with Sid the cat and his canine sidekick Cooper.

Sara Goering teaches philosophy at the University of Washington, Seattle, Department of Philosophy, where she is also a member of the Program on Ethics. During her graduate studies, she did a philosophy for children training at Montclair's Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children (IAPC), and then co-founded a summer philosophy camp for high school students and a philosophy outreach program at the University of Colorado, Boulder. At California State University Long Beach, she helped to create the Center for the Advancement of Philosophy in Schools (CAPS), which trained college students and partnered them with local teachers to lead philosophy discussions with young thinkers from 4th grade through high school. The Long Beach program also ran a summer philosophy institute for "at-risk" Long Beach high school students.

Jean Hanson is currently a stay-at-home mom to Henry and Lucia. She has taught middle school math and favorite pastimes are wondering and wandering.

Polly Hunter is the Director of Development for the University of Virginia Children's Hospital. Prior to moving to Charlottesville, she served for nine years as an Associate Director of Development for the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Washington, raising money for the social sciences, including the Department of Philosophy. Polly is a former board member of PLATO (Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization) and currently serves on PLATO's Development Committee.

Judith A. Howard is Professor Emerita of Sociology and the former Divisional Dean of Social Sciences at the University of Washington.  She earned her Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1982.   Her research focuses on the social cognitive study of gender dynamics in their intersections with race, class, and sexuality.  She is co-author (with Jocelyn A. Hollander and Daniel G. Renfrow) of Gendered Situations, Gendered Selves: A Gender Lens on Social Psychology (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011) and co-editor (with Jodi O’Brien) of Everyday Inequalities: Critical Inquiries (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1998).  Professor Howard is a former co-editor (with Carolyn Allen) of Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society.  She is a recipient of the 2001 University of Washington Distinguished Graduate Mentor Award and the 2010 University of Washington Graduate School Dean’s Award.

Terrance McKittrick is a Language Arts teacher at the alternative public school in Seattle known as Nova.  All of his classes have some sort of practical hands-on philosophy underlying them.  In his classes, he deeply cares about promoting social justice, community, and being able to begin to understand what is so important about critical thinking and love.  He is married to a teacher and has two children that compose each side of his heart.  At this point in his life he still doesn't own a cell phone and has never sent a text message - mic drop.

Janice Moskalik has worked with the Center for a number of years as an instructor in the Philosophers in the Schools Program, and as a mentor to students learning to lead philosophy classes with children. She received her Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Washington, and her main research areas are ethics, philosophy of law, and philosophical pedagogy. Recently, UW’s Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities has supported Janice’s research in philosophical pedagogy, awarding her two Andrew W. Mellon Fellowships through their project Reimagining the Humanities PhD. Janice is currently an Instructor in the Philosophy Department at Seattle University, where she teaches courses that explore questions of ethics in various contexts, and questions regarding the nature of being a human person. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of PLATO (Philosophy and Learning Teaching Organization).

dshapiro@cascadia.edu

David Shapiro is a faculty member at Cascadia College, where he teaches college philosophy classes that draw heavily upon his experiences and lesson plans for doing philosophy with pre-college students. IHe has been doing philosophy with young people in and around the Seattle area since he was a graduate student at the University of Washington way back in the 20th century. David is the author and/or co-author of six books, including Plato Was Wrong! Footnotes on Doing Philosophy with Young People, a compendium of activities, exercises, and games he has developed for exploring philosophical questions in the classroom and beyond.

Christine Stickler is director of The Riverways Education Partnerships at the University of Washington. This program connects undergraduate students with K-12 students as tutors and mentors both locally and around the state and focuses on issues of educational equity. Prior to coming to the UW, Christine was the founder and director of the Seattle Youth Involvement Network, a citywide youth advocacy program established in 1988 involved in youth development and community action. She also has worked as an educator and educational consultant in the United States, Central America and Europe, and has developed extensive educational resources around the areas of literacy, bilingual education and the arts.  Making things with her hands is a passion and she co-wrote the book:  “Wild with a Glue Gun: Getting Together with Crafty Friends” with her friend Katherine Harmon. Christine enjoys all aspects of living in the Pacific Northwest, especially kayaking its many waterways.