Jeneca Parker-Tongue

Jeneca Parker-Tongue is a Distinguished Lecturer of Educational Leadership at Hunter College and the Founding Director of the Hunter College Collaborative for Social Emotional Learning & Leading (C-SELL). With experience ranging from early childhood to high school, Jeneca has served as Principal and Assistant Principal within NYC Public Schools for over ten years, where she has demonstrated strength in designing collaborative structures that support academic and social-emotional needs for racially, culturally, and linguistically diverse students. She also coaches adult learners to recognize and positively manage emotions to improve emotional intelligence as a component of effective school leadership. In 2023, she was awarded the Distinguished Principal Award of Manhattan by MSPA and national SEL Leadership award by BlackSEL.

Conference Presentations

• Upcoming: ​​Mapping Geographies of Belonging in the School Environment and the Body. Presented at London Arts-Based Research Centre’s Strangeness and Oddity: Exploring the Extraordinary in Arts-Based Research. A Transdisciplinary Conference. Virtual. February 2025.
• Upcoming: Building Belonging from the Inside Out: Cultivating Self-Care in the Workplace. 2025 CUNY Career Compass for Women Leaders Conference. Virtual. March 2025.
• Upcoming: Building Belonging from the Inside Out in K-12 Schools. Presented at AERA SIG Social and Emotional Learning. Symposium entitled Moving From Trendy to Transformative Social and Emotional Learning: A Conversation with Practitioners and Scholars. Denver, CO. April 2025.
• Upcoming: Mapping Geographies of Belonging in the School Environment and the Body. Presented at AERA SIG Arts-Based Educational Research Roundtable Session entitled Engaging Visual Data, Inquiry and Storytelling.Denver, CO. April 2025.
• Advancing Self Care: A Nod to Self through Embodiment, Sharing and Gentle Action. Presented at CUNY Professional Development Conference. Virtual. November 2024.
• Black SEL and Self-Love: Exploring Black Self-Concept & Critical Consciousness. Presented at Black SEL Summit: NC Central University, Durham, NC, September 2024.
• Using heARTful Dialogue to Explore What It Means to Belong. Presented at 3rd Annual Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging Conference. New York, NY. July 2024.
• Loved by an Unreasonable Love: Exploring Belonging from the Inside Out. Presented at The Power of Us Conference. New York, NY. June 2024.
• Challenging Disparities: The Role of SEL in Promoting Educational Equity. Panelist at Urban Assembly SEL Symposium, New York, NY, May 2024.
• Designing for Impact: SEL Integration in Higher Education Programs. Panelist at Urban Assembly SEL Symposium, New York, NY, May 2024.

• Pursuing Ed.D. in Instructional Leadership, Hunter College
• Ed.M., Leadership for Educational Change: Focus on Special Education, Bank Street College, 2012
• M.S.T., Childhood Education & Childhood Special Education, Pace University, 2009
• B.A., International Development Studies, Furman University, 2007

Jeneca’s research focuses on leadership studies in placemaking using visual/artful methodologies. Toward this goal, she examines the social context of education, human geography, and emotional intelligence of school leaders by mapping internal and external geographies of belongingness in schools.

• Parker-Tongue, J. (in press). Chapter 4: Building belonging from the inside out in K-12 schools. [Manuscript submitted for publication]. In L. DeMartino & L. Fetman (Eds.), Moving from trendy and traditional to transformative social and emotional learning. Myers Education Press.