Tonya B. Perry
NCTE has provided a professional home for me throughout my career. As a middle school teacher, I first sought NCTE for professional development as I transitioned from college to becoming a new English language arts teacher. I eventually began to see NCTE as my place for a plethora of resources and an actual, thriving, learning community. After 20+ years of active learning with NCTE, I continue to call NCTE my professional home, as it continues to provide space for dialogue, relationship-building, and both professional and personal growth for me as a lifelong learner at every stage of my career. I look forward to serving my NCTE family as one of its leaders and being an advocate for our community. I am honored to be selected as Vice President and seek collaboration and dialogue to move us forward. We are stronger together, more so than any one person could be alone. Our collective voices make a difference, an impact.
Tonya B. Perry is a tireless advocate for students and educators who are often denied a voice. She works with and for educators, students, and communities to develop programs and initiatives that uplift historically marginalized peoples. In addition, she has advocated for others on numerous committees, including the NCTE Executive Committee, as a NCTE Research Foundation Trustee, NCTE Inclusivity Task Force, NCTEAR chairperson, and NCTE Editorial Board. She currently is the director for NCTE’s Cultivating New Voices among Scholars of Color program and serves on the National Writing Project’s Board of Directors. Perry has also served the nation as a 2000 National Teacher of the Year finalist and a two-time National Board Certified Teacher (NBCT). She has worked as a middle school teacher, teacher educator, full professor, executive director and principal investigator for a large GEAR UP grant, director of the Red Mountain Writing Project, and both interim department chair and executive director for outreach and engagement for a School of Education. Her new co-authored book Teaching for Racial Equity; Creating Interrupters (Stenhouse), which was released in April 2022, is a collaborative work with two teacher educators, Steve Zemelman and Katy Smith, and other brilliant teacher-writers