As a Black woman and as an immigrant, Fabienne Doucet embodies some of the mixed identities that she studies in her interdisciplinary research exploring how immigrant children and U.S.-born children of color navigate the educational system in the United States. Doucet, who was born in Spain and raised in Haiti until her family moved to the United States when she was 10, researches how certain taken-for-granted beliefs, practices, and values in American education put linguistically, culturally, and socioeconomically diverse children and families at a disadvantage.
Doucet is executive director of the Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools — the first Black woman to head a research center at NYU’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. She is also associate professor of early childhood education and urban education at NYU Steinhardt. A winner of several awards and fellowships, she is an affiliated faculty member of the Institute of Human Development and Social Change and the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at NYU. Additionally, Doucet serves as a program officer for the William T. Grant Foundation.
“First and foremost, I’m a mentor,” Doucet told the Washington Square News. “In particular, I support the careers of people of color, women, people on the margins, people whose identities are underrepresented in the academy. That’s my passion, that’s my love.”
