Dr. Michelle Anthony has spent her entire professional life working hands-on with educators, children, and families. She has worked in schools as both a teacher and a teacher-trainer, and has worked with parents as a developmental specialist and parenting workshop leader. In addition, she is an award-winning writer and program developer who has consulted with organizations as well as the media.
Dr. Anthony is an advisor, columnist, and feature writer for Scholastic’s Parent and Child Magazine. She is the co-founder of Wide-Eyed Learning, a company devoted to facilitating communication and learning, and co-developer of Signing Smart, a strategy-based program that uses ASL signs to foster development in hearing infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. More than 20,000 children in the US, Canada, and abroad have benefitted from Wide-Eyed Learning programming.
She is a certified teacher and has spent many years in the classroom, working with both typical and developmentally-delayed children. Dr. Anthony has co-authored several Scholastic children’s books, as well as two parenting titles with St. Martin’s Press. Her most recent book, Little Girls Can Be Mean: Fours Steps to Bully-proof Girls in the Early Grades is a parent and educator’s go-to guide for dealing with the growing issue of girl meanness in elementary school. It was released in August and is in its 3rd printing.
Dr. Anthony graduated with honors in Educational Studies from Brown University, holds an M.A. in Child Studies and a Teacher’s Certificate from Tufts University, and a Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from the University of California at Berkeley. In addition, she is certified in ASL and Deaf Studies, and has spent upwards of a decade exploring gender-related issues as they relate to diversity, education, and development.
Dr. Anthony is a sought after developmental expert who has worked closely with organizations such as Innosight Ventures, Kindermusik International, Inc., FasTraKids International, Ltd., Scholastic Inc., Kumon, Clorox, and at national educational conferences. In addition, she has worked with reporters and media from the New York Times, New York Post, NPR, Time, among others, and has been on over 30 radio shows and more than 20 television and cable segments, as well as on the Rachael Ray show.
Dr. Anthony has worked with practicing teachers as well as teachers-in-training, through conferences, in-services, workshops, and university certification program classes. She has worked with parents directly, as well as through organizations such as Child Find, Developmental Pathways, and First Steps.
She is mother to three children, two girls and a boy, all under the age of 11.