Advisors

AdLit.org is guided by an advisory panel made up of leading researchers and experts in the field of adolescent literacy.

Dr. Donna Alvermann

Dr. Alvermann is the Distinguished Research Professor of Language and Literacy Education at the University of Georgia. Formerly a classroom teacher in Texas and New York, her research focuses on youth's multiple literacies in and out of school. From 1992 to 1997 she co-directed the National Reading Research Center, funded by the U.S. Department of Education. With over 100 articles and chapters in print, her books include Content Reading and Literacy: Succeeding in Today's Diverse Classrooms (5th ed.); Popular Culture in the Classroom: Teaching and Researching Critical Media Literacy; Bridging the Literacy Achievement Gap, Grades 4-12; and Adolescents and Literacies in a Digital World (3rd printing). Past president of the National Reading Conference (NRC) and co-chair of the International Reading Association's Commission on Adolescent Literacy, she currently edits Reading Research Quarterly. She was elected to the Reading Hall of Fame in 1999, and is the recipient of NRC's Oscar Causey Award for Outstanding Contributions to Reading Research, the Albert Kingston Award for Distinguished Service, the College Reading Association's Laureate Award, the H.B. Herr Award for Contributions to Research in Reading Education, and the William S. Gray Citation of Merit awarded by the International Reading Association.

Dr. Fenice Boyd

Dr. Boyd is an associate professor of Literacy Education in the Department of Learning and Instruction at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York. She earned her doctorate from Michigan State University in Curriculum, Teaching, and Educational Policy with a specialty in Literacy. Dr. Boyd's research centers on issues of diversity as they relate to adolescents' ethnic, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds, academic abilities, instructional approaches, and curriculum materials. She has published book chapters and articles in peer-reviewed journals including Reading Research and Instruction , The Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, The Journal of Literacy Research, and Reading & Writing Quarterly. She co-edited Multicultural and Multilingual Literacy and Language: Contexts and Practices (2004) and co-authored a book in press titled Principles Practices for Adolescent Literacy (Sturtevant, Boyd, Brozo, Hinchman, Moore & Alvermann). She teaches graduate-level courses focused on politics in literacy education, reading comprehension research, adolescent-literacy instructional methods, language arts, and young adult literature.

Dr. Donald Deshler

Dr. Deshler is the director of the Center for Research on Learning (CRL) and a professor in the School of Education at the University of Kansas. He is also a co-principal investigator with the National Research Center on Learning Disabilities (NRCLD). Dr. Deshler's work addresses ways to close the large "achievement gap" and to reduce the escalating drop-out rate for struggling adolescent learners. His work focuses on designing instructional routines that can be used by secondary teachers to help them more effectively teach subject-matter content to academically diverse classes in secondary schools. The work of CRL focuses on the validation of academic strategies for adolescents who struggle with becoming good readers, writers, and learners. Dr. Deshler serves as an advisor on adolescent achievement to several organizations, including the Carnegie Foundation, the National Governor's Association, the Alliance for Excellent Education, the Council on Families and Literacy, and the U.S. State Department. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the J.E. Wallace Wallin Award from the Council for Exceptional Children and the Learning Disabilities Association Award from the Learning Disabilities Association of America for outstanding research and service for at-risk populations.

Dr. F. Todd Goodson

Dr. Goodson is an associate professor at the College of Education at Kansas State University and the editor of The Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, a publication of the International Reading Association. Dr. Goodson previously taught high school English in both rural and urban settings, and he has held university faculty appointments in Education and Arts and Sciences. Currently, Dr. Goodson directs the secondary credentialing programs in English Education at Kansas State University, where he also teaches an undergraduate methods course devoted to secondary language arts, supervises students' field experiences, advises undergraduate and graduate students, and supervises graduate student research. Dr. Goodson's research interests include the social, cultural and political aspects of language arts education. Goodson also directs the Flint Hills Writing Project (FHWP), a site of the National Writing Project, which offers a five-week summer institute for teachers to learn more about the practice of teaching writing. The FHWP also offers youth and outreach programs, in-services for schools, and a teacher-research network.

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Partners

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT)

The AFT was founded in 1916 to represent the economic, social and professional interests of classroom teachers. It is an affiliated international union of the AFL-CIO. The AFT advocates sound, commonsense public education policies, including high academic and conduct standards for students and greater professionalism for teachers and school staff.

American School Counselors Association (ASCA)

ASCA supports school counselors' efforts to help students focus on academic, personal/social and career development so they achieve success in school and are prepared to lead fulfilling lives as responsible members of society

Center for Summer Learning at Johns Hopkins University

The mission of the Center for Summer Learning is to create high quality summer learning opportunities for all young people. The Center is committed to expanding summer learning opportunities for disadvantaged children and youth as a strategy for closing the achievement gap.

First Book

First Book is a nonprofit organization with a single mission: to give children from low-income families the opportunity to read and own their first new books. Through hundreds of local Advisory Boards, the First Book National Book Bank, and the First Book Marketplace, the organization provides an ongoing supply of new books to children participating in community-based mentoring, tutoring, and family literacy programs. First Book has provided more than 50 million new books to children in need in thousands of communities nationwide.

National Education Association (NEA)

The National Education Association is the nation's largest professional employee organization, representing 3.2 million elementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty, education support professionals, school administrators, retired educators, and students preparing to become teachers. To focus the country's attention on how important it is to motivate children to read, NEA launched the Read Across America program in 1997. This nationwide reading celebration takes place each year on March 2, the birthday of beloved children's author Dr. Seuss. NEA's Read Across America also provides NEA members, parents, caregivers, and children the resources and activities they need to keep reading on the calendar 365 days a year.

Newspaper Association of America Foundation

The Newspaper Association of America Foundation strives to develop engaged and literate citizens in our diverse society through investment in and support of programs designed to enhance student achievement through newspaper readership and appreciation of the First Amendment. The Foundation's programs and products emphasize the use of newspapers and other media by young people. Foundation support is concentrated in three primary focus areas: Newspaper in Education (NIE), youth content, and student newspapers.

Reading Is Fundamental (RIF)

RIF is the oldest and largest children's and family nonprofit literacy organization in the United States. Through community volunteers in every state and U.S. territory, RIF provides 4.5 million children with 16 million new, free books and literacy resources each year. All RIF programs combine three essential elements to foster children's literacy: reading motivation, family and community involvement, and the excitement of choosing free books to keep.

Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA)

The Young Adult Library Services Association's (YALSA) mission is to advocate, promote and strenghten library services to young adults. For over 50 years YALSA has been the world leader in selecting recommended reading, listening and viewing for teens. YALSA is also the home to initiatives such as Teen Read Week, Teen Tech Week and Support Teen Literature Day. Visit www.ala.org/yalsa to find out more.

WETA and Learning Media

WETA Washington, D.C., is the third-largest producing station for PBS. WETA's productions and co-productions include The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Washington Week with Gwen Ifill and National Journal, and documentaries by filmmaker Ken Burns.

Over the last decade, WETA's Learning Media department has created and sustained four award-winning educational multimedia services: LD OnLine, Reading Rockets, Colorín Colorado, and AdLit.

LD OnLine

LD OnLine is the most comprehensive and widely used information service ever offered in the field of learning disabilities — a meeting place for all interested in helping children learn and adapt in school and at home.

Reading Rockets

Reading Rockets looks at how young children learn to read, why so many struggle, and what we can do to help them. The website includes an archive of articles, interviews with children's authors, a daily headline service, two blogs, and much more. The Reading Rockets project also encompasses programs produced for PBS, including A Tale of Two Schools and a series called Launching Young Readers.

Colorín Colorado

Colorín Colorado is a bilingual website designed for the parents and educators of English language learners. The website gives Spanish-speaking parents a wealth of information in their native language and gives teachers the information they need to be more effective in working with children for whom English is a second language.

AdLit

Launched in late 2007, AdLit offers resources to the parents and educators of struggling readers and writers in grades 4-12. The site includes research-based articles, instructional material for classroom teachers, an Ask the Experts feature, a blog by a librarian and children's book reviewer, tips for parents, book recommendations, exclusive interviews with top authors, and a free monthly e-newsletter.

Staff

Noel Gunther, Executive Director

Noel Gunther, the executive director of AdLit, has broad experience in radio, television, print, and the Internet. He has co-written and co-produced award-winning documentaries for NPR and Public Radio International, including: Good Morning Vietnam with Adrian Cronauer; American Voices: Norman Corwin with Charles Kuralt; Gray Matters: Depression with Mike Wallace ; and Drugs, Alcohol and the Brain.

Christian Lindstrom, Senior Producer

Christian Lindstrom is a producer for WETA Learning Media where her work includes developing television programs, Web sites, and print materials about reading, learning disabilities, mental health, and brain science. Her work on A Tale of Two Schools included directing, writing, and offline editing.

Alan Lundy-Ponce, Director, Learning Media Websites

Alan Lundy-Ponce has 14 years of software development and project management experience, including work for IBM, several Silicon Valley start-ups, and in Ethiopia and Haiti. He has degrees in economics and computer science from Reed College and the University of Washington.

Dale Brown, Senior Manager, LD OnLine

Dale Brown is the author of five books in the field of disability, including Steps to Independence for People with Learning Disabilities. She coauthored Job Hunting Tips for the So-Called Handicapped or People Who Have Disabilities with Richard Nelson Bolles, author of What Color is Your Parachute? She has published numerous articles, many of which may be found on LD OnLine.

Tina Chovanec, Manager, Reading Rockets

Susannah Harris, Manager, AdLit.org

Susannah Harris has more than 15 years experience as a writer, editor, project manager, and literacy tutor. Ms. Harris is the volunteer coordinator for the Community Club, Washington D.C.'s oldest one-on-one youth tutoring program, where she is responsible for tutor recruitment and training. She serves as a board member of the New York Avenue Foundation, whose mission is to improve educational opportunities for D.C. students.

Kelly Andrews, Project Coordinator

Caron Baker, Intern

Bridget Brady, Web Assistant

Lydia Breiseth, Project Associate

Katie Chase, Associate Editor

Kelly Deckert, Web Producer

Laurie Fry, Publicist

Ashley Gilleland, Associate Producer

Sun Kim, Web Coordinator

Joanne Meier, Ph.D., Research Consultant

Joanne Meier, Ph.D. provides research guidance for Reading Rockets. Dr. Meier has more than 15 years of experience in the field of early childhood education. Dr. Meier served on the faculty at the University of Virginia for six years where she trained reading specialists and future classroom teachers.

Maria Salvadore, Children's Literature Editor

Maria Salvadore is Reading Rockets' consultant for children's literature and literacy. She is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Maryland, reviewer for School Library Journal and Capitol Choices, and former member of the American Library Association's Notable Children's Book Committee.

Rachael Walker, Outreach Consultant

Rachael Walker began her career in literacy outreach at Reading Is Fundamental (RIF). She has also served as a consultant to the National Education Association’s Read Across America campaign, the U.S. Department of Education’s America Reads program, and was most recently the Executive Director of Reach Out and Read of Metro DC. She consults for HarperCollins Children’s Books and the Learning Media group at WETA.