Call for nominations: Loyola’s 2019 Literacy Leader and Educator of the Year awards
| By Molly Robey
Maneka Deanna Brooks, Ph.D., 2019 Literacy Leader and Educator of Year keynote speaker.
Nominations for Loyola University Maryland’s 2019 Literacy Leader and Educator of the Year are now open and will remain open until Jan. 25, 2019.
The Literacy Leader Award recognizes a graduate of Loyola’s Literacy Master’s program specializing in either reading or literacy who promotes literacy; demonstrates innovation in practice; exhibits principled leadership within the school or community; and models lifelong learning as a member of the professional literacy community.
The Educator of the Year Award recognizes a Maryland educator who demonstrates accomplished practice and innovation in literacy teaching and learning; fosters a literacy-rich and welcoming classroom community; models lifelong learning; enhances the literacy development of all students; collaborates and shares best practices with colleagues; and exhibits principled practice in the classroom, school, and/or community.
Nominations can be submitted on the Literacy Leadership Awards website. Winners will be notified on Feb. 1, 2019, and awarded at a ceremony on Monday, Feb. 11, 2019, from 6 – 7:30 p.m. in the 4th Floor Program Room in the Andrew White Student Center on Loyola’s Evergreen campus. The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. To reserve seats, go to https://www.loyola.edu/join-us/literacy-leadership-awards/reserve-seats.
Maneka Deanna Brooks, Ph.D., assistant professor of reading education at Texas State University, will give this year’s keynote address, “‘Little Things Are Big’: Choice, Voice, and Equity in Everyday Decisions."
Her presentation will highlight how literacy educators can make equitable decisions when faced with inequitable situations. She will also give strategies for educators to explain the complex systems that govern schools to students and their families.
Brooks earned her Ph.D. in Educational Linguistics from Stanford University Graduate School of Education, an M.A. in Secondary Bilingual Education, and a B.A. in Psychology with a minor in Spanish from Loyola Marymount University. Her research focuses on everyday educational practices that impact the educational trajectories of bilingual adolescents. Her work has been published in the Journal of Literacy Research, Research in the Teaching of English, TESOL Quarterly, and other venues.