Mary Cowhey has taught first and second grade at Jackson St. School in Northampton, MA for twelve years and is the author of Black Ants and Buddhists: Thinking Critically and Teaching Differently in the Primary Grades (Stenhouse, 2006), winner of the 2008 National Association for Multicultural Education Philip C. Chinn Multicultural Book Award and the 2007 Skipping Stones Multicultural Book Award. She was a community organizer for fourteen years before becoming a teacher. She has received numerous teaching awards, including the Milken National Educator Award, the Anti-Defamation League World Of Difference Award, a National League of Women Voters Award and the University of Massachusetts Distinguished Alumni Award. Her essays and articles have been published in What Keeps Teachers Going, Why We Teach, Dear Paulo: Letters From Those Who Dare Teach, Teaching With Fire, Teaching Tolerance, Rethinking Schools, Instructor, Connect and public radio. She is a co-founder of Familias con Poder/Families With Power, a grass roots organizing effort among low-income families of color, using a popular education approach.
