Literacies and Languages for All

2022 LLA OPENING KEYNOTE
Friday, July 29 | 10:15–11:15 a.m. ET
Dr. 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. She is the co-author of  Advancing Racial Literacies in Teacher Education: Toward Activism for Equity in Digital Spaces (with Dr. Detra Price-Dennis, 2021). She is also the author of the full-length poetry collections Love from the Vortex & Other Poems (2020) and  The Peace Chronicles (2021).

2022 LLA SATURDAY KEYNOTE
Saturday, July 30 | 9:00–10:00 a.m. ET

The authors of Revolutionary Love.

Kamania Wynter-Hoyte is an associate professor in the Department of Instruction and Teacher Education at the University of South Carolina. She has published in the International Critical Childhood Policy Studies Journal, the Journal of Negro Education, the Journal of Literacy Research, and the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education and has presented her research at national and international conferences. She is the recipient of the National Council of Teachers of English 2018 Early Literacy Educator of the Year Award.

Eliza G. Braden is an associate professor in the Department of Instruction and Teacher Education at the University of South Carolina. Her work is published in the J ournal of Children’s Literature, the Teachers College Record, Children’s Literature in Education, and the I nternational Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education. Dr. Braden is the recipient of NCTE’s Early Career Educator of Color Leadership Award and the Early Literacy Educator of the Year Award from the Early Childhood Education Assembly.

Michele Myers is an assistant professor for elementary literacy education at Wake Forest University with over twenty-eight years of experience in education. Currently she teaches embedded literacy methods courses. Dr. Myers is an NCTE executive board member and the president of Literacies and Languages for All (LLA). She is the recipient of the 2019 Black Faculty and Staff Association Award for Community Advocacy and the 2018 Martin Luther King Jr. Social Justice Award from the University of South Carolina.

Sanjuana C. Rodriguez is an associate professor of reading and literacy education in the Department of Elementary and Early Childhood at Kennesaw State University. She also serves as the co-director of the Academy for Language and Literacy and is the current chair of the NCTE Orbis Pictus Book Award Committee. She has published in various journals including the Journal of Children’s Literature, Teachers and Teaching, and Race Ethnicity and Education. Dr. Rodriguez received the Kennesaw State University Bagwell College of Education Early Career Award in 2018 and the Teaching Award in 2019.

Natasha Thornton is founder of Thornton Educational Consulting and co-developer of Black Education is Lit(eracy), an online resource that highlights Black history and excellence. Her work centers on developing professional learning and curricular materials that foster culturally responsive beliefs and practices. She has published in Race Ethnicity and Education and Multicultural Perspectives. Dr. Thornton is also an adjunct professor of literacy education at Kennesaw State University and serves on the board of the Literacies and Languages for All conference.