By The Reading League
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The podcast currently has 22 episodes available.
Rupen Fofaria is a storyteller at EDNC.org, where he examines how education policy shows up in classrooms and impacts teachers, students, and families. Rupen has invested much of his time since 2019 reporting stories about literacy instruction in North Carolina. His stories about the body of research on how kids learn to read take readers inside classrooms, advance student and family narratives, explore challenges for early reading teachers, and study best practices in colleges of education. Prior to joining EdNC, Rupen was an attorney in Raleigh and Chicago, practicing start-up and intellectual property law. In his (much) younger days, he was a sports writer for ESPN.com, the Raleigh News and Observer, and the Orlando Sentinel. Rupen’s passion is shining light on untold and underreported issues.
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Deborah is an education attorney in the San Francisco Bay Area currently representing families and students against school districts throughout Northern California. She is extremely passionate about her work and the rights of children with disabilities and children who are disproportionally affected by the failures of public schools. Deborah is an active member of the educational community and works with parents, teachers, administrators, service providers and local organizations to support the needs of vulnerable youth.
Deborah has spent her entire legal career working on behalf of children. As a law student she worked as a legal intern and special education advocate for Disability Rights California and Bay Area Legal Aide, then quickly became the managing associate at a special education law firm in the District of Columbia where she represented low-income families in court appointed special education cases. Prior to relocating back to the Bay Area, Deborah co-founded The School Justice Project (“SJP”), a legal services and advocacy organization serving older students with special education needs who are involved in Washington DC’s justice system. In 2013 Deborah started her own practice in Berkeley, California, Jacobson Education Law (“JEL”). In addition to her private practice, Deborah has worked as both co-counsel and of counsel for Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (“DREDF”), and she currently serves as Of Counsel for The East Bay Community Law Center in their Education Justice Clinic.
Deborah has effectively and compassionately represented hundreds of clients in special education matters. She is a frequent presenter at state and national conferences and provides trainings to local advocacy and parent groups.
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Audie Alumbaugh received her master’s degree in special education but has been an unpaid advocate for Arkansas children for over 10 years. Her passion began when teaching mathematics and recognizing that middle school and high school students were unable to perform at the potential when “word problems” were presented to them. it did not take long after that for her to realize the reading crisis in Arkansas. When her faculty position at the University of Central Arkansas and her advocacy for children resulted in what public school superintendents referred to as a “conflict of interest,” Audie left her faculty position knowing children’s education is more important and much more urgently needed. Audie has advocated for thousands of children and attended thousands of 504 and IEP meetings around the state as well as several outside of her home state. In 2015 Audie founded the Arkansas Dyslexia Support Group and funded its activities herself. Audie works tirelessly with the Arkansas legislature. Through her work several laws have been enacted strengthening public schools’ responsibility in identifying children with dyslexia and providing proper science-based intervention. Audie has assisted advocates in other states and worked to strengthen their laws as well.
This is a labor of love for Audie.
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Kelly Butler is the Chief Executive Officer of The Barksdale Reading Institute (BRI). The Institute’s literacy work encompasses early childhood, parenting, professional development for teachers, teacher preparation, and developing literacy leaders.
Ms. Butler is the author of two statewide studies and developed a subsequent statewide initiative to improve teacher preparation programs focused on early literacy instruction in Mississippi’s 15 public and private universities.
A former high school teacher in the Greenwich, Connecticut Public Schools, Ms. Butler holds a bachelor’s degree in Special Education and a master’s degree in Administration, Planning and Social Policy from Harvard University. She served by appointment to the Governor’s Task Force on Teacher Preparation for Early Literacy Instruction and the State Reading Panel and, most recently, the Governor’s Task Force on Educator Workforce Development.
Kelly has leveraged the Institute’s successful track record to initiate several multi-organization and multi-state initiatives, including The Big Dippers Short Course in the Science of Reading for Teach For America’s National Summer Institute, The Path Forward: Bringing the Science of Reading to Teacher Preparation Programs and Licensure, and a twenty-member national team of reading experts to review the teacher preparation programs in a neighboring state.
Kelly is frequently called upon to tell the story of Mississippi’s literacy challenges and successes, and as more states are responding to the literacy instruction crisis, BRI has provided consultation to a number of legislative and philanthropic groups from various states.
Kelly is the recipient of The Reading League’s 2021 Benita Blachman award, for advancing evidence to practice.
Ms. Butler lives in Jackson, Mississippi with her husband, Thorne. They have five daughters.
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Shawn Anthony Robinson Ph.D.is co-founder of Doctor Dyslexia Dude and serves on the inaugural advisory council of Benetech. Robinson has over 40 peer-reviewed publications and received several distinguished honors throughout his career, including the 2017 Alumni Achievement Award/New Trier High School Alumni Hall of Honor; the 2016 Outstanding Young Alumni Award from University of Wisconsin; and “Educator of the Year” from All-State Insurance (Chicago) 2005. Robinson is a Life Member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.
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Jeannine Herron, Ph.D. is a research neuropsychologist. After ten years of dyslexia research at University of California at San Francisco, she became founder/CEO of Talking Fingers. She was the Principal Investigator on five Small Business Innovation Research grants from the National Institute of Child Health (NICHD) to develop and do research with early literacy software, in collaboration with Joe Torgesen, Carol Connor, Linnea Ehri, Patricia Mathes, Margie Gillis, and others whose mentorship enriched her research and her life. She is the author of several books, including Making Speech Visible: How Constructing Words Can Help Children Organize their Brains for Skillful Reading.
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Angie Hanlin is a dedicated and passionate leader for change in schools and classrooms. She currently serves as the superintendent at the School District of Thorp in Thorp, Wisconsin where she works tirelessly to positively transform teacher practice and student achievement. She bases her career on the belief that ALL students can learn and perform at high levels of achievement when they are given highly engaging, research-based instructional practices and targeted specific interventions. She creates a growth mindset among her students, staff, and community and uses character education to shape and sustain a positive culture of collaboration and growth that is focused on learning.
Angie has over 20 years of experience in education where she has served in the roles of classroom teacher, curriculum coordinator, instructional coach, professional development coordinator where she worked to train and coach teachers on effective instructional practices and strategies, and as a building principal at Matthews Elementary in the New Madrid County R-1 School District. She has received numerous awards for her performance in the classroom and has found a new passion for working with building leaders to promote systems to improve literacy for all students.
Angie received the 2019-2020 Outstanding Rural Administrator Award from MARE (Missouri Association of Rural Educators). She is now on a journey of literacy improvement, systems & structure work, and school district transformation with the amazing staff, students, and community members at the School District of Thorp.
Dr. Sam Duncan is the Superintendent of Schools for the New Madrid County R-1 School District (NMCR-1) where he began his career as a high school English/foreign language teacher in 1988. After serving as a junior high principal at NMCR-1, he moved to another district as a middle school principal, and then to central office administrator. He returned to NMCR-1 in 2016 to take his current position.
Dr. Duncan has led NMCR-1 through a season of heralded improvements. This upper-Mississippi-Delta school system covers 470 square miles with 7 city councils. Since 2016, the district has experienced significant improvements in literacy, school security, financial stability, co-curricular offerings, and technical skills expansion, while also cutting the percent of students with IEPs in half.
Duncan is most proud of the continued support of the R-1 Board of Education in the promotion of student literacy. He touts the ever-pressing commitment of his leadership team, as well as the tenacious efforts of faculty and staff to grow assessment-capable learners and students who “don’t just read, but read well!” NMCR-1 continues to drive toward being a well-ordered, highly collaborative, data-driven, impressively impactful, and “globally consistent yet individually responsive” Pk-12 educational community.
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Dr. Tracy Weeden is a seasoned and passionate leader dedicated to advancing literacy and academic excellence for children and adults. With an Ed.D in Educational Leadership, Tracy has spent her career creating and building innovative programs, systems, and teams focused on providing enhanced learning opportunities and exceptional outcomes for students.
Tracy is a true visionary when it comes to improving the world through education. Her innovative style of leadership, combined with her compassionate and engaging nature, enables her to successfully manage change and growth across a diverse constituent base including Boards of Trustees, donors, staff, parents, teachers, educational partners, and students.
In her current role as President and CEO of Neuhaus, she provides leadership and support in the areas of financial management, recruitment and development of staff, fundraising initiatives, initiating and furthering relationships with NEC partners, and guidance of professional and public relations.
Prior to joining Neuhaus, Tracy was the Executive Director of Academic Planning with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Intervention Services Group (a division recently acquired from Scholastic Achievement Partners). In this capacity, Dr. Weeden provided executive consulting nationally on the development of systems that helped school districts improve student achievement and address barriers to rigorous, relevant learning. Prior to Scholastic Achievement Partners, she spent more than five years as the Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment for the Houston Independent School District.
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Dr. Jan Hasbrouck is a researcher, educational consultant, and author. She served as Executive Consultant to the Washington State Reading Initiative and as an advisor to the Texas Reading Initiative. Dr. Hasbrouck was a reading specialist and literacy coach for 15 years before teaching at the University of Oregon and later becoming a professor at Texas A&M University. Dr. Hasbrouck has provided educational consulting to individual schools across the United States as well as in Mexico, Peru, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, and Germany, helping teachers, specialists, and administrators design and implement effective assessment and instructional programs targeted to help low-performing readers.
Dr. Hasbrouck earned her B.A. and M.A. from the University of Oregon, and completed her Ph.D. at Texas A&M. Her research in areas of reading fluency, reading assessment, instructional coaching, and English Learners has been published in numerous professional books and journals. She is the author and coauthor of several books including “Conquering Dyslexia”, “Reading Fluency”, “Student-Focused Coaching” and “Educators as Physicians”, along with several assessment tools. In 2019 she helped found Read Washington, a 501(c3) nonprofit organization with the mission to “provide professional development opportunities, based on the science of reading, so every student becomes a skilled and confident reader.” She also enjoys volunteering at her grandson’s K-8 school in Seattle.
Further Resources by Jan Hasbrouck
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In this episode, we’ll talk with Dusty, Dott, and Alphabott, learn how they became friends and discover how they are sharing Dusty’s journey in learning to read. You’ll find out all about their television show and how Dusty and Dott have worked with The Reading League to ensure that the science of reading is the foundation for the show.
After hearing from our friends, we hope you'll become a Reading Buddy, too!
The Reading League’s Reading Buddies launches in September 2021 and can be viewed on YouTube and WCNY-PBS. Like the show on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter to stay informed and subscribe to the show’s YouTube channel to be notified of new episodes and videos when they are released.
Learn more about The Reading League’s Reading Buddies at www.thereadingleague.org/Reading-Buddies.
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The podcast currently has 22 episodes available.
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