Natalie Martinez

Natalie Martinez (K’awaika-meh), is a former administrator and teacher at the tribally-controlled middle school in her Pueblo Nation. Her teaching career has included middle school, high school, and higher education in public, private, charter, and tribal schools in New Mexico. She has served on the Pueblo of Laguna Education Priority Team over the past ten years, and was recently appointed to the Laguna Board of Education. Dr. Martinez worked with teams to create Indigenous-centered curriculum projects including Indigenous Wisdom, with the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, and Indigenous New Mexico, for the Indian Education Division of the NM Public Education Department. She served as the curriculum coordinator for the NEH-Teaching Native American Histories Summer Institute in Wampanoag Territory, Massachusetts,  and authored the curriculum guide to accompany the adaptation of An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States for Young People.  Dr. Martinez teaches at the University of New Mexico in the College of Education, Department of Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies.

Debbie Reese

Tribally enrolled at Nambé Owingeh, a sovereign Native Nation in what is currently called New Mexico, Dr. Debbie Reese has taught young children and college students. Her website, American Indians in Children’s Literature, is widely known as a go-to source for analysis of children’s books with Native content. She is co-adapter (with Jean Mendoza) of An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States for Young People, which was selected as a 2020 Young Adult Book Honor title by the American Indian Library Association.

Cruz Medina

Cruz Medina is associate professor of rhetoric and composition at Santa Clara University, where he teaches courses on writing, cultural rhetoric, and digital composing. His research interests include cultural rhetorics and digital writing and the intersections between them. He is the author of Reclaiming Poch@ Pop (Palgrave 2015) and coeditor of Racial Shorthand: Coded Misrepresentations Contested in Social Media (CCDP 2018). His writing has recently appeared in Composition Studies and Rhetoric Review. Cruz has taught for the Bread Loaf School of English since 2016. He is a cochair of the Latinx Caucus of NCTE/CCCC.

Danielle Filipiak

Danielle Filipiak is an assistant professor of curriculum and instruction and director of the secondary English education program at the University of Connecticut. She also serves as the curriculum director for Cyphers for Justice, a youth and teacher development program that apprentices young people as critical social researchers through multiple literacies, hip hop, and spoken word. She has over 15 years of experience working in city schools, including a decade of teaching and activism in Detroit, Michigan, as well as teaching and literacy coaching in schools and higher ed institutions across New York City. Danielle has served on both the NCTE Committee Against Racism and Bias in the Teaching of English and the NCTE Global Citizenship Committee. She was a co-awardee of the CEE ELATE Research Initiative Grant in 2016 for her work on leveraging YPAR as a critical tool for teacher education.  Her research interests focus on literacy and English education in plural contexts, civic learning and critical digital literacies, and the literacies and identities of teacher candidates who are women of color.

Naomi Filipiak

Naomi Filipiak is a 12th-grade student at Westover School, Hartford, Connecticut. Although she is originally from both New York City and Detroit, she now lives in Storrs, Connecticut. Naomi is currently serving her third year as a head of her school’s African American and Latina Student Association. She is also a youth leaders fellow for the Hip Hop Youth Research and Activism Conference, where she helps create and facilitate spaces for young people who are “connected to hip hop, committed to social change, and unapologetically expressive in their art forms.” Outside of her work as a young activist, Naomi also enjoys dancing, writing, eating good food, and spending quality time with those she loves.

Tracey Flores

Tracey T. Flores is an assistant professor of Language and Literacy at the University of Texas at Austin, where she teaches Language Arts Methods and Community Literacies in the K–5 teacher education program. A former English language development and language arts teacher, she worked for eight years alongside culturally and linguistically diverse students, families and communities in K–8 schools in Glendale and Phoenix, Arizona. She is the founder of Somos Escritoras/We Are Writers, a creative space for Latina girls (grades 6–12) to share and perform stories from their lived experiences using art, theater and writing.  She is also the Chair of the NCTE Latinx Caucus and the Founding Co-Chair of the Commission on Family and Community Literacies of English Language Arts Teacher Educators (ELATE). Dr. Flores is a member of the 2016–2018 Cultivating New Voices Among Scholars (CNV) of Color cohort.

Vivian Flores

Vivian Flores was born in Holbrook, Arizona—one of twelve children in the small rural town of 5,000 in northern Arizona. She lived in Holbrook until she was sixteen, when she moved to Phoenix so her family could have more opportunities. She attended Arizona State University and is the mother of three daughters who also attended Arizona State University, as well as being Nana to Milagros.

Vivian has volunteered thousands of hours of service for several nonprofit organizations, elementary schools, and high schools focused on supporting children, families, and communities. She has received recognition for her volunteer service from the Assistance League of Phoenix and the Thunderbird High School Parents Association, and received the Lamp of Learning Award from the Washington Elementary School District Board for her many years of volunteer service at Mountain Sky Junior High School.

She continues to assist her daughters in their career endeavors while also volunteering assistance in the Somos Escritoras writing program.

Raven Jones Stanbrough

Raven Jones Stanbrough is an assistant professor and Mentors as Teacher Educators (MATE) coordinator in the department of teacher education at Michigan State University. Her teaching, research, and publications focus on literacy, culture, race, equity, and the educational and lived experiences of students of color in urban contexts, and have been included in The Journal of Higher Education, English Education, the Michigan Reading Journal, and others. Dr. Jones Stanbrough creates and facilitates debate education programs to promote and expand the educative and creative engagement that debate offers. She has received numerous awards, including the Excellence in Diversity Award from Michigan State University for her outstanding efforts in promoting diversity and inclusion in and across her teaching. She enjoys all things Detroit, Scrabble, The Clark Sisters, and yoga.

Zuri Hudson Stanbrough

At just five years old, Zuri Hudson can usually be seen rockin’ an afro and pearls! Along with her parents, Raven and Darryl Jr., she serves as a cofounder of The Zuri Reads Initiative (TZRI), which organizes and provides literacy-related events and resources for Detroit-area children, students, and families. With a love for Spelman College, outdoor fun, playing with her cousins, and reading, Zuri Hudson also enjoys watching her favorite television shows, Veggie Tales and Motown Magic. When she isn’t singing around the house or asking her Daddy to go on long bike rides, she also favors using her imagination to tell funny stories. Her teachers often praise her kindness and empathetic nature. Zuri Hudson can also be seen on Facebook and YouTube (The Zuri Reads Initiative) for her Word Up Wednesdays segment, where she discusses topics ranging from consonants and vowels to being a hard worker and meditating.

Joanne Marciano

Dr. Joanne E. Marciano is an assistant professor of English education in the Department of Teacher Education at Michigan State University. She is coauthor of the books Classroom Cultures: Equitable Schooling for Racially Diverse Youth and College Ready: Preparing Black and Latina/o Youth for Higher Education—A Culturally Relevant Approach. From 2002–2015, Joanne taught secondary English at a public high school in New York City.

Carmela Watson

Carmela F. Marciano Watson is a ninth grader at East Lansing High School. She enjoys music, video games, and making iMovies with friends and family. Carmela’s favorite genres to read are dystopian and historical fiction. She also likes traveling, running, and writing screenplays.

Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz

Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz is an award-winning associate professor at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her research focuses on racial literacy in teacher education, Black girl literacies, and Black and Latinx male high school students. A sought-after speaker on issues of race, culturally responsive pedagogy, and diversity, Sealey-Ruiz works with K–12 and higher education school communities to increase their racial literacy knowledge and move toward more equitable school experiences for their Black and Latinx students. Sealey-Ruiz appeared in Spike Lee’s 2 Fists Up: We Gon’ Be Alright, a documentary about the Black Lives Matter movement and the campus protests at Mizzou. Her first full-length book of poetry, Love From the Vortex & Other Poems (Kalediscope Vibrations) was published in March 2020.

Jenae Cohn

Dr. Jenae Cohn writes and speaks about teaching and learning in digital spaces and has taught college-level writing since 2011. She works as the director of academic technology at California State University, Sacramento. Find more at www.jenaecohn.net.

Laura Gonzales

Dr. Laura Gonzales is an assistant professor of digital writing and cultural rhetorics at the University of Florida. She teaches, researches, and develops programs focused on the intersections of language diversity, technology design, and community engagement. Her website is www.gonzlaur.com.

Cheryl Glenn

Cheryl Glenn is University Distinguished Professor of English, Director of the Program in Writing and Rhetoric, and cofounder of the Center for Democratic Deliberation at Penn State University. Glenn is widely recognized in the field of writing and rhetoric as a guiding force whose scholarship and activism have helped transform the discipline into a more inclusive and representative one, recognizing the language/dialect, experience, and ethics of all communicators. Her three monographs, numerous edited collections, two coedited book series, essays, and textbooks insist on the crucial links among rhetoric, writing, literacy, and human lives. The sustained cultivation of this goal has earned her distinguished appointments, certifications, and honors, both nationally and globally.

Arnetha Ball

Arnetha F. Ball is the Charles E. Ducommun Endowed Professor (Emerita) in the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University. She is a professor in the Curriculum Studies, Teacher Education, Educational Linguistics, and Social Sciences in Education Programs. She currently serves as Chair of the cross-area, cross-disciplinary program in Race, Inequality, and Language in Education (RILE) and is interim director of the university’s program in African and African American Studies. Among her many professional roles, Dr. Ball served as secretary and vice president of the AERA Division K on Teaching and Teacher Education and was 2011–2012 AERA president. Before entering the professorate, she taught in preschool, elementary, and secondary classrooms for over 25 years, and was the founder and Executive Director of the Children’s Creative Workshop, an early education center for students from diverse backgrounds. She is the author/co-editor of numerous articles and books and the recipient of many awards, including the 2020 President’s Award for Diversity and the 2020 Miriam Roland Volunteer Service Award.

María E. Fránquiz

María E. Fránquiz is an associate professor in the department of curriculum and instruction in the Bilingual-Bicultural Education program area, at the University of Texas at Austin. Her previous teaching positions were in Literacy and Bilingual-Multicultural Foundations of Education at the University of Colorado in Boulder (1995–2002) and in Bilingual-Bicultural Studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio (2002–2008). Dr. Fránquiz teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on the theoretical foundations of bilingual education, biliteracy and culture, Latino children’s literature, and writing in bilingual contexts. She is a teaching consultant for the National Writing Project. Her research is based on ethnographic examination of language and literacy practices in K–12 classrooms. Most recently her scholarship examines how Latino critical race theory elucidates the relationship between heritage culture and the evolving identities of future teachers.

Juan Guerra

Juan Guerra is professor emeritus of English and former chair of the Department of American Ethnic Studies at the University of Washington, Seattle, where for thirty years he taught courses on literacy, ethnography, autobiography, language variation, language policy, and composition and rhetoric. In his first book, Close to Home: Oral and Language Practices in a Transnational Mexicano Community (1998), he examined the language, literacy, and cultural resources of a social network of Mexicano adults living in a rural community in Mexico and Chicago’s inner city. In his most recent book, Language, Culture, Identity and Citizenship in College Classrooms and Communities (2016), he described a set of rhetorical and discursive tools related to language, culture and identity that disenfranchised students can use to navigate and negotiate pedagogical spaces they inhabit in writing classrooms and beyond as they prepare to become citizens in the making. Guerra has also published essays exploring the concept of writing across difference through what he describes as the critical practice of transcultural repositioning. Over the past sixteen years, he has served as a mentor for and director of NCTE’s Cultivating New Voices Among Scholars of Color program.

Valerie Kinloch

NCTE President-Elect Valerie Kinloch currently holds the positions of Renée and Richard Goldman dean and professor, School of Education, University of Pittsburgh; executive member, AERA Consortium of University and Research Institutions; and co-chair, Remake Learning Council. Prior to assuming the deanship at the University of Pittsburgh, Kinloch served as professor of literacy studies, associate dean, Ohio State University; and assistant professor, literacy studies, Teachers College-Columbia University.

Carol D. Lee

Carol D. Lee is Professor Emeritus of Education in the School of Education and Social Policy and in African American Studies at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. Among the many groups for which she has served in a leadership role are the National Academy of Education, the American Educational Research Association, the National Conference on Research in Language and Literacy, and the NCTE Research Assembly. She’s been the recipient of many awards, including the NCTE Distinguished Service Award, the AERA Scholars of Color Distinguished Scholar Award, and the AACTE Lifetime Achievement Award. Among her many publications are articles, monographs, and several books, including Culture, Literacy, and Learning: Taking Bloom in the Midst of the Whirlwind. Her teaching career spans 50 years and includes work at the primary, high school, community college, and university levels. She is also the founder of four African-centered schools, including three charter schools under the umbrella of the Betty Shabazz International Charter Schools, where she serves as chair of the board of directors.

Tonya Perry

Tonya Perry is a professor and interim chair of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She has been named Alabama Teacher of the Year (2000–2001) and a National Teacher of the Year Finalist (top four). Her research focuses on literacy instruction in the secondary schools, primarily in the areas of writing, urban education, and teacher preparation. Perry has presented and published widely, and is author (with Rebecca Manery) of Supporting Students in the Time of Common Core, which highlights teachers who are incorporating effective teaching strategies into their classes to increase student thinking as they enact literacy practices. As director (with Bruce McComiskey) and principal investigator for the UAB Red Mountain Writing Project, she continues to serve, research, and work directly with teachers, students, and families to promote researched-based literacy practices through programs and events.

Peter Smagorinsky

Peter Smagorinsky is Distinguished Research Professor emeritus in the Department of Language and Literacy Education at the University of Georgia and Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the Universidad de Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. From 2012–2020 he served as the faculty advisor to the student-edited Journal of Language and Literacy Education at UGA, and from 1996–2003 he coedited, with Michael W. Smith, Research in the Teaching of English. Recent awards include the 2020 Horace Mann League Outstanding Public Educator Award, 2018 International Federation for the Teaching of English Award, and 2018 Distinguished Scholar recognition by the National Conference on Research in Language and Literacy. His research and teaching take a sociocultural approach to issues of literacy education, literacy teacher education, and related social concerns. Among his many publications are Learning to Teach English and Language Arts: A Vygotskian Perspective on Beginning Teachers’ Pedagogical Concept Development, Developing Culturally and Historical Sensitive Teacher Education: Global Lessons from a Literacy Education Program (coedited with Yolanda Gayol and Patricia Rosas), and the edited collections Creativity and Community among Autism-Spectrum Youth: Creating Positive Social Updrafts through Play and Performance andDismantling the Disabling Environments of Education: Creating New Cultures and Contexts for Accommodating Difference (coedited with Joe Tobin and Kyunghwa Lee.)

Juan Felipe Herrera

Juan Felipe Herrera was US Poet Laureate from 2015 to 2017. In addition to publishing more than a dozen collections of poetry, including 187 Reasons Mexicanos Can’t Cross the Border: Undocuments 1971-2007, Half of the World in Light: New and Selected Poems (2008), and Border-Crosser with a Lamborghini Dream (1999), Herrera has written short stories, young adult novels, and children’s literature. His most recent works for young people include Imagine (2018), Jabberwalking (2018), and Portraits of Hispanic American Heroes (2014), a picture book showcasing inspiring Hispanic and Latino Americans. His honors include fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, two Latino Hall of Fame Poetry Awards, a PEN/Beyond Margins Award, a PEN USA National Poetry Award, a PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Award, two Américas Awards, two Pura Belpré Author Honor Awards, the Independent Publisher Book Award, and the Ezra Jack Keats Award.

Alfredo Celedón Luján

Alfredo Celedón Luján, President of NCTE, is the dean of students, an English teacher, and a basketball coach at Monte del Sol Charter School in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is a graduate of the Bread Loaf School of English and has also been assistant to the director at its Santa Fe campus. He has taught at secondary and middle school levels. His NCTE leadership also includes assisting with the revitalized New Mexico Council of Teachers of English and serving on the Latinx Caucus, Secondary Section Steering Committee, Rainbow Strand, Commission for Literature, and Standing Committee Against Racism and Bias. In addition, he is a recipient of the 2015 New Mexico Golden Apple Award and the 2017 NCTE Advancement of People of Color Leadership Award.

Pat Mora

Pat Mora is poet, writer, and former teacher who promotes creativity, inclusivity, and bookjoy. She is the author of many books of poetry and children’s books, and in 1996, founded Children’s Day, Book Day/El día de los niños, El día de los libros, now celebrated across the country each year on April 30. Mora has been a recipient of a Poetry Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and a recipient and advisor of the Kellogg National Leadership Fellowships. She and her husband live in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Jon Olson

Jon Olson is a scholar in the field of rhetoric and composition. He specializes in practices and theories of writing program administration, especially writing centers and writing-across-the-curriculum programs. At Penn State, he has a split appointment between the department of English and Penn State Learning. He educates and supervises writing tutors at Penn State Learning and advises faculty who teach writing-intensive classes; he also directs the Graduate Writing Center. He was president of the International Writing Centers Association 2003-2005.