Melissa Sherfinski, PhD

Melissa Sherfinski is Professor of Early Childhood and Elementary Education at West Virginia University since 2011. She started her career as a fourth and fifth grade teacher in Wisconsin and as her children (who are both now WVU alumni) were born and grew, she was endeared to early childhood education, starting a childcare business in her home and teaching preschool at her church before returning to college to become licensed to teach early childhood education in the public school. Dr. Sherfinski was then a public school Kindergarten teacher for several years before earning her doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction with an Area of Emphasis in Curriculum Theory and Research and a Distributed Minor in Research Methodology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is interested in creating dynamic and inclusive culturally sustaining place-based classrooms and her recent book, Rooted in Belonging (Teachers College Press) illuminates both the successes and challenges in doing so. Her current projects focus on the roles of parents rights initiatives in early education, the impacts of AI programs in Appalachian elementary schools, and understanding systems of universal pre-kindergarten education and childcare in local communities.