Tobi Adejumo is a Research and Policy Associate at the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment. As part of the SEQUAL team, she supports efforts to improve work environments for ECE educators. Beyond SEQUAL, Tobi contributes to educator-focused projects across the Center—designing engagement strategies, facilitating communities of practice, and coordinating partner outreach for statewide workforce studies and fellowship programs.
With a background in community-based and ethnographic research, Tobi is committed to elevating educator voice—particularly that of immigrant and multilingual teachers—and linking workplace conditions to children’s learning experiences. She also collaborates with CSCCE’s communications team to translate research findings into clear, accessible products that reach policymakers, advocates, and the public.
Tobi’s research focuses on immigrant early-childhood educators, workforce well-being, and the links between educator working conditions and children’s learning experiences. Her expertise—and greatest joy—lies in deep qualitative approaches, including community-based engagement projects and ethnographic studies. She also brings experience in survey design, mixed-methods analysis, and accessible research translation; her publications include work on Head Start workforce well-being, quality improvement for diverse learners, and kindergarten transitions.
Before joining CSCCE, Tobi taught early-childhood education, family engagement, and child ecology courses at the University of Colorado Denver and served as an adjunct professor mentoring preservice teachers. She also collaborated on community-based projects aimed at improving preschool-to-kindergarten alignment for multilingual families.
She earned her BA in English Education from Obafemi Awolowo University, her master’s in Teaching, Learning, and Leadership from Southwest Minnesota State University, and her Ph.D. in Early Childhood Education from the University of Colorado Denver.
On weekends, Tobi can be found cooking, baking, and experimenting with new recipes or exploring local hiking trails with her two young boys.