Field Notes: Celebrating CCCC - National Council of Teachers of English
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Field Notes: Celebrating CCCC

Field Notes

Dear NCTE Members and Friends,

The NCTE spirit is defined by innovative thinking, collaborative support for ongoing professional learning, and persistent advocacy for what’s best for our students. It’s alive and well in classrooms, lecture halls, seminar rooms, and online learning spaces all across the country every single day.

Within NCTE, many communities exist – and I hear from you regularly that it is hard to keep up with them all and appreciate what each one does. We want to do a better job of illustrating the unique value in our myriad constituencies. In this issue and future issues of Field Notes, I want to connect you to some of the other gears within NCTE – so that you have a sense of the whole and the important connections between all the fantastic work that constitutes NCTE.

I’ve experienced the beauty of the NCTE community in the most personal of ways over the last few weeks. My dad passed away on March 14, just prior to my boarding a flight to Portland for the CCCC Annual Convention. The NCTE community has shared their support and love in a multitude of ways. I will always remember this and be grateful.

The family circumstance required me to watch the second largest annual event within NCTE from afar, and as the slideshow below will show you, it was nothing short of inspiring.

Did you know that the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) (the world’s largest professional organization for researching and teaching composition, from writing to new media) is within the NCTE family? The CCCC Annual Convention regularly attracts at least 3,000 attendees. Leading that effort this year was Program Chair Carolyn Calhoon-Dillahunt and CCCC Chair Linda Adler-Kassner. More than 3,800 people attended this year’s Convention, and attendees were able to experience 853 sessions, meetings, and workshops. You can get a sense of the conversation and excitement if you scroll through the #4c17 hashtag.

My colleague CC Chapman took these photos, which I think demonstrate a sample of the powerful and wide-ranging learning that took place:

 

Emily Kirkpatrick
Emily Kirkpatrick is an experienced senior executive with deep expertise in organizational strategy, programmatic innovation, external communications, and fundraising in the education and nonprofit space. Ms. Kirkpatrick assumed her position as the Executive Director of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)—the oldest and one of the largest literacy and education organizations in the United States—in November 2015, overseeing the professional home to English language arts teachers from preK through university and amplifying the voices of educators through connection, collaborations, and a shared mission to improve the teaching and learning of English. Prior to NCTE, Ms. Kirkpatrick served in multiple leadership roles at the National Center for Families Learning (NCFL), an organization dedicated to eradicating poverty through education solutions for families. During her tenure at NCFL, Ms. Kirkpatrick created the award-winning digital learning platform Wonderopolis®, which reached millions of children across the globe and which was recognized by TIME Magazine as one of the top 50 websites of 2011.   A transformative leader, Ms. Kirkpatrick has dedicated her career to public service and civic engagement, seeking to increase national literacy and social mobility, amplify educator voices, and advance the inclusion and empowerment of women.   A native and longtime resident of Kentucky, Ms. Kirkpatrick has also served in planning and public relations roles at the Kentucky Office of the Secretary of Education, Arts and Humanities, and advanced the inclusion of women in public service positions while at the Kentucky Commission on Women. She earned her MBA with honors from Bellarmine University and her BA from Centre College in Kentucky.