Awards

NCTE Early Career Educator of Color Leadership Program

Program Details 

Purpose:

The specific purpose of this program is to support early career teachers of color as they build accomplished teaching careers in literacy education.

Eligibility:
Practicing preK to university-level literacy educators of color who are in the first five years of a paid teaching career and who aspire to build a career in literacy education. People of color refers to historically underrepresented groups: African American, American Indian, Asian American, Latinx, and Pacific Islander.

Program Specifics:

• Programmatic: (1) two years of support from a mentor in year one who can help the recipient plan his or her institute experience and to use NCTE resources to enhance professional growth; (2) in year two, the opportunity to present or co-present at the NCTE Annual Convention; (3) an opportunity to collaborate with NCTE leaders; (4) a plaque to recognize the recipient’s participation.
• Financial: round-trip airfare, hotel, and meals for the summer ECEOC Institute in year one AND round-trip airfare, complimentary registration at the NCTE Annual Convention, three nights’ lodging expenses, and a $50 per diem for three days at the NCTE Annual Convention in year two.
• A complete application will include a recommendation letter and a signed support letter from your school administrator or university-level supervisor. Please note that the support letter can be e-signed or may also be confirmed with an email directly from your administrator to leadershift@ncte.org.
• An interview with ECEOC leadership may be requested in May of the application year.

All recipients must be an NCTE member at the time the award is accepted. The annual standard membership cost is $50.00 and recipients can join online.

Questions? Please contact leadershift@ncte.org.

Lakeya Afolalu is an assistant professor in the Language, Literacy, and Culture Program at the University of Washington’s College of Education. Raised between Nigerian and African American cultures, she reflects her hybrid identity in her scholarship focusing on African immigrant youth. Specifically, Afolalu explores the role of multilingualism and literacy, including digital literacies, in the identity constructions and negotiations of African immigrant youth across home, school, and digital spaces. She pays particular attention to how the United States’ system of racialization and racial identity categories influences identity formation.

Committed to youth and communities, Afolalu translates her research into practice through school and community-based partnerships that support the identities and well-being of youth of color. Like her scholarship, Afolalu’s university teaching is also anchored in historical, postcolonial, and sociocultural perspectives. She teaches undergraduate and graduate-level courses focused on literacy, language, the arts, and identity that center her students’ lived experiences and diverse ways of being. Her academic scholarship has appeared in Teachers College Record, the Journal of Literacy Research, and the Journal of Research in Childhood Education. Her public scholarship has been featured in various formats, including TEDx, ESSENCE Magazine, and NPR.

Huan Gao, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Instruction and Curriculum Leadership at the University of Memphis. Her research focuses on exploring and empowering the digital, media, and information literacy of multilingual children and families within the context of transnational migration. Additionally, she investigates the evolving literacies essential for learning and working successfully in an increasingly AI-dominated world. Her work has been published in prestigious journals such as Linguistics and Education, Literacy Research: Theory, Method, and Practice, and the Journal of Information Literacy.

Dr. Gao teaches undergraduate and graduate courses including literacy in grades 4–8, literacy for English language learners, evaluation in data-driven classrooms, and children’s literature. She earned her PhD in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Florida, specializing in Languages and Literacies in Education with a concentration in Educational Technology. Prior to her doctoral studies, Dr. Gao taught diverse student groups in various international and national settings. She is the recipient of the 2022 ELATE Geneva Smitherman Cultural Diversity Grant (NCTE) and the 2022 LRA Student Outstanding Research Award.

Dr. Wenyu Guo is an assistant professor of Literacy Studies in the College of Education at the University of South Florida, Tampa. She earned her PhD in Teaching & Learning and a Certificate of Graduate Study in Qualitative Research from the University of South Carolina, with a focus on Literacy, Bilingual Education, and Qualitative Research Methodology. Her research takes a critical perspective to examine how intersectionalities surrounding identity, power, and racial awareness emerge in the literate lives of Asian transnational families and adolescents. Specifically, Dr. Guo examines how Asian transnational individuals navigate southeastern racialized contexts and how parents provide racial literacy to their children post-COVID. Additionally, Dr. Guo focuses on the language immersion experiences of Asian American students in bilingual and biliteracy education. By recognizing and disrupting the legacy of anti-Blackness, anti-Asian, and anti-immigrant racism, Dr. Guo’s research aims to challenge White-centric curricula by employing antiracist translanguaging pedagogy and integrating critical multicultural children’s literature in mainstream literacy and Chinese immersion classrooms.

Rachel Jordan, MSEd, is a recent graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, where she received a Master of Education in Reading, Writing, and Literacy and was a Dean’s Scholar. She also graduated Summa Cum Laude from Howard University in 2023, earning a bachelor’s in Urban Elementary Education. Jordan’s current studies focus on creating culturally and historically responsive literacy practices through storytelling with Black elementary students. She recently received the Literacy Studies Research Award for outstanding contributions to literacy research, practice, and community engagement at Penn GSE. Additionally, she was honored with the Literacy Studies Outstanding Capstone Award for her exemplary performance in the Literacy Studies Thesis Capstone Project, where she researched why representation in literature matters for African American children. Following her graduation from Penn GSE, Jordan accepted a position as a second-grade teacher at Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She also works as a facilitator for the Philadelphia nonprofit organization WeR.E.I.G.N, where she assists with the Advocacy, Activism, and Organization internship program for young Black girls. An engaged community advocate passionate about working with children, Jordan firmly believes that literacy has the power to be a transformative force for all students, serving as a liberatory practice that can pave the way toward social justice.

Lakisha Odlum is a former New York City public school teacher who received her PhD in English Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. She is currently an assistant professor of English Education at CUNY Queens College where she teaches undergraduate and graduate preservice and inservice teachers. Her research interests include culturally responsive teacher preparation, the intersection of racial and digital literacies, diversifying the teaching profession, and the teaching of Black girls. She is a proud and active member of NCTE, having held various leadership positions such as Lead Ambassador, Middle Level Representative-at-Large, and Chair of the ELATE Nominating Committee.

Rocio Rivas is a high school teacher at Trevor Browne High School in Phoenix, Arizona. Rivas is a fourth year educator and is passionate about empowering first generation students through culturally responsive pedagogy. In her classroom, students feel accepted, valued, and liberated through the influences of authentic literacy tasks. She believes that students’ stories, identities, and voices can transform their communities and disrupt the oppressive structures that attempt to silence them. During her graduate studies, she created a youth advocacy unit titled “Illuminating Student Voices: Using Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy in Writing Instruction” that engages students with social justice advocacy in their community. Her hope is to build future change-makers and to support English educators in the integration of powerful writing pedagogies. She is a graduate of Arizona State University where she received her bachelor’s and master’s in English education.

ECEOC CO-DIRECTORS

By years of service

Dr. Tiffany A. Flowers

Co-director through November, 2024

Dr. Tiffany A. Flowers is a multidisciplinary researcher with a background in early childhood education, curriculum and instruction, psychology, social, philosophical, and historical foundations of education, teaching and learning, and language, literacy, and culture. Using a variety of research methods, Dr. Flowers investigates educational policy, contemporary and historical curriculum issues, and equity within literacy. Her research also focuses on cultural contexts, community engagement, pedagogical concerns, and issues related to families. Through this multifaceted research focus, Dr. Flowers conducts a variety of inquiries into areas such as family literacy, children’s and young adult literature, African American literacy development, field placement, urban education, and the scholarship of teaching and learning.

Andy Chen

Co-director through November, 2025

Andy Chen serves as Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity at John Burroughs School in St. Louis, Missouri, where he teaches English and is the faculty sponsor for the Asian affinity group. Andy is a 2018 alumnus of the ECEOC and has served as the program’s co-director since 2021.

Jeanine Staples-Dixon

Co-director through November, 2029

Jeanine Staples-Dixon is Professor of Literacy and Language, African American Studies, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Penn State’s Colleges of Education and Liberal Arts. She also serves as Senior Faculty Mentor for the university, through the Office of Educational Equity. A long time leader in Critical New Literacies Studies and teacher education, she’s currently focusing on her two forthcoming books, Extraordinary Pedagogies (Teachers College Press, 2024) and Extraordinary Literacies (Palgrave MacMillan, 2026).