Dr. Erika Christakis is an early childhood educator and NYT bestselling author. A graduate of Harvard College with master’s degrees in public health and education, she has decades of experience working with young children and their families, as a teacher, preschool director, and reading specialist. Her writing on children and families has been featured in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, TIME.com, and the New York Daily News. Her 2016 book, The Importance of Being Little: What Young Children Really Need From Grownups, was the Gold medal winner of the 2016 Nautilus Book Awards and a Washington Post Notable book of the year.
As a Lecturer at Yale University, Dr. Christakis taught undergraduate courses in child policy and child development and served as Co-Head of Silliman College. Following a 2015 call by Yale’s Intercultural Affairs Council warning students to guard against culturally offensive Halloween costumes, she countered with an alternative approach. Affirming her faith in students and their expressive rights, she reminded her readers that American universities were once “safe spaces” for occasionally transgressive behavior that could lead to maturation. As the Halloween controversy mutated into a national media spectacle, Dr. Christakis emerged as a thoughtful defender of free speech in an environment increasingly marked by censoriousness and infantilizing regulation from above.
For her tireless advocacy of free speech and young adults’ rights to learn and mature, the Columbia Academic Freedom Council is honored to present Dr. Erika Christakis with the 2025 Academic Freedom Award.
