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Literacy Leader Fellows Biographies
Susan Cowles
Literacy Leader Fellow 1996-1997
Susan Cowles teaches basic skills to adults in a welfare reform program at Linn-Benton Community College, Albany, Oregon. She has also been active in staff development initiatives at the state, regional, and national levels, especially in the area of mathematics education. She helped to develop the Math as Problem Solving workshop for the Northwest Regional Literacy Resource Center. Susan is a founding member and Northwest Regional Representative of the Adult Numeracy Practitioners Network (ANPN). She served as the convenor of the Oregon Study Group for the ANPN planning grant for adult numeracy standards and reform in mathematics instruction, funded by the National Institute for Literacy. Susan also participated in the videoconference, "Adult Numeracy Instruction: A New Approach", produced by the National Center on Adult Literacy. In addition, she taught and wrote curricular materials in a family literacy project at Linn-Benton Community funded by the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy. Her earlier professional experience includes teaching at the middle school and high school levels.
Susan is a graduate of the University of Southern California, B.A. History, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi. She received a Master of Arts in Education from Stanford University, where she participated in the Secondary Teacher Education Project, a project funded by a Ford Foundation Challenge Grant to improve teacher education and preparation. She credits her Stanford experience as a major influence on her work in curricular design, staff development, and general teaching and learning.
Susan's interests include reform initiatives in mathematics teaching, the use of technology in teaching and learning, and the incorporation of materials from science, geography, and history into basic skills instruction. She loves to travel (in reality as well as electronically), read, and dance the tango.
Read about Susan Cowles' Work
Susan Cowles' Work On-Line
Jennifer Cromley
Literacy Leader Fellow 1998-1999
Jennifer Cromley has coordinated the evening GED program and the volunteer program for the last three years at Academy of Hope, a private, non-profit GED program in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of Washington, DC. For eleven years she has taught basic reading, writing, and math in the context of occupational health and safety training. She has trained over 300 volunteer teachers and peer educators across the U.S. over the last ten years.
View Jennifer's fellowship report, Learning to Think: Advances in Cognitive Psychology for Adult Literacy. (Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader version 4.0)
Jennifer is the author of a training manual on writing Plain English materials, co-author of a GED teacher training curriculum, and author of eight workplace health and safety manuals. She is a 1986 graduate of Yale University, B.A. Labor Studies. Her education interests include popular education, research-based teaching methods, hot cognition, and writing easy-to-read materials. She loves to play the flute and violin, listen to music, cook and bake.
Deborah D'Amico
Literacy Leader Fellow 1996-1997
Deborah DíAmico is currently an independent consultant in adult education and training. Her most recent work includes research and evaluation projects and grant proposals for worker education programs, and a National Institute for Literacy Literacy Leader Fellowship directed toward the examination of adult education and welfare reform (1996-97).
Formerly the Deputy Director of Education and Training for the Consortium for Worker Education in New York City (1992-1996), Dr. DíAmico developed and monitored programs serving over 20,000 union members and dislocated workers annually. As Research Coordinator at the Literacy Assistance center (1990-1992), she published reports and articles on workplace literacy, assessment in adult education, access to adult education programs among African Americans, and the purposes and goals of adult learners.
Dr. DíAmico holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from City University of New York, and has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in Anthropology, Womenís Studies and Caribbean Studies, as well as writing and study skills for undergraduate students. She has published articles on education policy and on the relationship between education and work.
Most recently, she co-authored an article examining a workplace literacy program (see Changing Work, Changing Workers, Glynda Hull, ed., SUNY Press, 1997) and conducted a literature review of research on the role of adult education in welfare to work initiatives (forthcoming from the National Institute for Literacy). Dr. DíAmico applies her anthropological training to research that addresses how adult education outcomes and methodologies challenge the injustices of gender, race and class.
Pam Etre-Pérez
Literacy Leader Fellow 2000-2001
Pam Etre-Pérez has been an ESL teacher for
over 22 years. She coordinates the Adult Basic Education program at the University of New Mexico's
Valencia Campus while continuing to teach ESL in this rural setting. She is a founder of the
Valencia County Literacy Council where she serves as a permanent board member. Pam co-facilitates
ESL student empowerment workshops called "Nuestras Voces" throughout New Mexico in coordination with
the state's student leadership organization.
Pam is a graduate of the School for International Training (MAT) and Georgetown University (BA).
She is currently a doctoral student in the Language, Literacy and Socio-Cultural Studies program at
the University of New Mexico. Her areas of interest include critical pedagogy, participatory
leadership, and social change. Projects she has worked on over the years include women in
transition, student retention, authentic assessment, and health education. Pam likes to travel,
exercise, read, spend time with her family, and play the charango, a string instrument from Bolivia.
Pam can be reached at pperez@unm.edu
Marcia Drew Hohn, Ed.D.
Literacy Leader Fellow 1996-1997
Marcia Drew Hohn, Ed.D., is Director of Northeast SABES (System for Adult Basic Education Support) located at North Essex Community College in Lawrence, MA. She has been working in the field of adult education for more than 25 years in a variety of environments, including business, health, municipal management and basic education. Her present research and writing are focused on the integration of health and literacy education.
Read about Marcia Drew Hohn's Work
Janet Isserlis
Literacy Leader Fellow 1999-2000
Janet Isserlis, project director of Literacy Resources/RI has worked with adult immigrant, refugee and first language learners in the US and Canada since 1980. While much of her work has focused on developing approaches and materials for beginning level literacy learners, she has also been engaged in literacy work pertaining to women and learning, and teacher education related to practitioner-based research, assessment, evaluation and learner-generated writing. She has taught in community-based and workplace settings, and most recently worked with residents of a psychiatric hospital seeking to expand their own literacy abilities. Janet is one of many co-authors of Making Connections: Literacy and EAL curriculum from a Feminist Curriculum (Toronto: CCLOW, 1996), and has written articles for the Change Agent, Bright Ideas, Adventures in Assessment (publications of SABES/NELRC and World Education) and has developed two websites, one for Literacy Resources/RI, and another, addressing the integration of technology, popular culture, and adult education.
Read about Janet Isserlis' Work
Paul Jurmo
Literacy Leader Fellow 1995-1996
Paul Jurmo is executive director of Learning Partnerships, a nonprofit organization based in East Brunswick, NJ which provides technical assistance, research, and other services to adult literacy efforts in the U.S. Recent projects have included curriculum development and evaluation work for two federal workplace education programs and studies of how adult basic education can help learners prepare for productive, rewarding roles in the world of work. Paul is also co-chair of the advocacy committee of the New Jersey Association for Lifelong Learning and coordinator of the Workplace Education Collaborative, an informal network of workplace educators.
Suzanne Knell
Literacy Leader Fellow 1996-1997
Suzanne Knell has been the Executive Director of the Illinois Literacy Resource Development Center since 1987 and has over 18 years of experience in adult education and related areas. Knell has conducted major national and state projects including an investigation of Illinois company-based work place education programs which was part of a larger national project overseen by the Southport Institute for Policy Analysis. In addition, she conducted a four phase investigation of Illinois family literacy programs where program structures and assessment/evaluation systems were examined and further developed. Publications about these projects have been written and disseminated throughout the nation and abroad. Presently, Knell provides technical assistance in program development and assessment/evaluation to library literacy and community-based literacy programs throughout the nation. She plans to expand her work in welfare reform and adult education.
Read about Suzanne Knell's Work
Alec Levenson
Literacy Leader Fellow 1999-2000
Alec Levenson is a Research Scientist at the Center for Effective Organizations in the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California. Dr. Levenson's research focuses on personnel and the economics of human resources. Topics include the bottom-line rationale for implementing basic education programs in the workplace; the role of temporary jobs in providing employment and training opportunities for entry-level workers; and the factors leading to virtual team effectiveness and productivity. His prior research addressed topics such as the impact of welfare reform on individual welfare recipients and the role of basic literacy skills; trends in part-time, temporary, and contingent work; the supply-side determinants of part-time and temporary employment; how employers use hours cutbacks versus layoffs to adjust labor demand; credit constraints for small businesses; small business regulation in Mexico; informal credit markets in Taiwan; and social security reform in Taiwan. Dr. Levenson is a member of the Board of Directors of the Literacy Network of Greater Los Angeles. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from Princeton University, and his B.A. in Economics and Chinese language from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Read Alec Levenson's work online: Investing in Workers' Basic Skills: Lessons for Adult Education Professionals from Company-Funded Workplace Literacy Programs. Acrobat PDF format, Word Document format
Senitila McKinley
1995-1996 Literacy Leader Fellow
Senitila McKinley is a former English-as-a Second-Language student who has acted as a state and national spokesperson for adult learners. She is originally from Tonga, works as a Teacher's Aide at Waldport Grade School, and is a published author, artist, and church deacon. Her fellowship project is to conduct a national survey of "best practices" in adult learner advocacy then make presentations to groups concerned with literacy.
Kathleen Olson
Literacy Leader Fellow 2000-2001
Kathleen Olson has worked in the field of adult education for more than 13 years in a variety of
environments, including ESOL, Adult Basic Education, and developmental studies. She is currently
teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) at Franklin University in Columbus, Ohio. She
provides professional development training across the U.S. in areas ranging from music in the
classroom to collaborative learning. Kathleen is the author of Something to Talk About, a
conversation resource book for ESOL teachers and students (University of Michigan Press, forthcoming).
She is a graduate of Cornell University (B.S.) and Syracuse University (M.S.) She likes to travel,
walk, and read, and is pursuing a life goal of playing badminton in the Senior Olympics. Kathleen
can be reached at olsonk@gw.Franklin.edu.
David Rosen
Literacy Leader Fellow 1995-1996
David J. Rosen, Ed.D., Director
Adult Literacy Resource Institute
Boston , Massachusetts
617/782-8956; Fax: 617/782-9011
DJRosen@world.std.com
Since 1986 David Rosen has been the Director of Boston's Adult Literacy Resource Institute, a staff and program development center jointly sponsored by the University of Massachusetts at Boston and Roxbury Community College. The Resource Institute, with a staff of six, serves over 150, primarily community-based adult literacy/basic education/ESOL programs in the greater Boston area. It is one of five Regional Support Centers in Massachusetts which are part of the state System for Adult Basic Education Support (SABES), and it is also part of the New England Literacy Resource Center. The Resource Institute provides staff development and training, program and curriculum development, and other technical assistance, training, consulting and materials resources to help adult education program staff members continuously improve their teaching and the quality of their programs.
Recent Major Consultations and Research
In October, 1995 he was awarded one of five one-year fellowships from the National Institute for Literacy to carry out research concerning how adult literacy practitioners and learners are using the Internet, what obstacles they have found, how they are (or are not) overcoming them, and to design training/staff development models which could assist them.
From July - September, 1996, David was a consultant to Literacy Partners of New York City to help establish a new three-year national "What Works Literacy Partnership" funded by the Lila Wallace Readers' Digest Foundation.
From 1994-1996 he was a consultant to Public Television Station WGBH in Boston on an advisory committee to assist in developing a new national 26-part ESOL television broadcast series.
In February and March of 1995, then again in November and December, 1996, and in July, 1997, taking brief leaves of absence from the Adult Literacy Resource Institute, he provided nonformal (adult) education consulting and technical assistance services to the Philippines Department of Education through a grant provided to World Education by the Asian Development Bank.
Other work with Adult Literacy and Technology
David is a founder and past Chairman of the Boston Literacy Telecommunications Collaborative, Chairman and chief staff member to the Massachusetts Adult Literacy and Technology Team, a founder and Steering Committee member of the MetroBoston Community-Wide Education and Information Service, and a member of the Advisory Board to the National Institute for Literacy LINKS Region I Hub. He is also the moderator of a national adult literacy electronic list, the National Literacy Advocacy list, which serves over 650 subscribers
Leslie Shelton
Literacy Leader Fellow 1995-1996
Leslie Shelton has been the Director of Project Read, a cooperative library literacy program in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1985. She is recognized as an innovator in the field of adult literacy education, and was one of four adult educators in the country awarded a Literacy Leader Fellowship from the National Institute for Literacy for 1995/96. Her Fellowship activities included creating new multi-sensory curriculum materials for adult educators based on the theory of multiple intelligences. Leslie has created practical teaching tools that help teachers, tutors and learners unleash their learning potential by using all the intelligences in instruction. She and two staff members co-authored a learning tool kit, Honoring Diversity: a multidimensional learning model for adults, which was published by the California State Library Foundation in 1992.
Leslie has trained more than a thousand literacy professionals and tutors in California, the mid-West and Pennsylvania to recognize the learning strengths of their students and create multi-intelligent instructional strategies for more effective and exciting lessons.
Leslie is also a leader in the area of adult learner leadership. She coordinated the creation of a planning team of adult learners to plan and conduct three Bay Area Adult Learner Conferences held just for adult learners between 1989 and 1995. In addition, she coordinated the day-to-day planning for the first statewide California Adult Learner Conference in 1996. She is also the author of a "cookbook" approach to organizing learner involvement and support activities for adult literacy programs titled, The Dinner Buffet Approach to Learner Support Activities.
Beth Sauerhaft
Literacy Leader Fellow 1996-1997
Beth Sauerhaft is the founder and director of The Breast Cancer Oral History Action Project (BCOHAP),a participatory action research and social justice education project in Berkeley, Ca. As an educator and an activist Beth has nearly 20 years of experience doing teaching, training, staff and leadership development working with adult literacy and ESOL programs, women's and community health projects, teen mothers, welfare rights groups, women in prison and in support of international solidarity movements. A working class Jewish woman and child of a holocaust survivor, Beth consciously draws on her personal and cultural identities and struggles in her practice of a critical pedagogy of transformation and hope. She has collaborated with poetry, (her favorite food) theater, and the visual arts to inspire the languages and transformative spaces essential for rethinking and remaping our relationships to history, knowledge and power.
Read about Beth Sauerhaft's Work
Archie Willard
Literacy Leader Fellow 1995-1996
Brief Bio Long after having graduated from high school with 4th grade reading skills, Archie Willard, at age 54, discovered his own learning difference--dyslexia. As a result of this he enrolled in an adult literacy program, and improved his reading skills to a high school reading level. He has worked with professionals in the field of literacy and learning disabilities to gain information about why people struggle to read. He has traveled to Eastern Europe to see how countries there work with learning disabilities. He has given many presentations about his life and about learning disabilities. He now works as a literacy coordinator at Iowa Central Community College. His fellowship project is to conduct a national survey of "best practices" to find out how adults are involved in different literacy programs all over the nation and to help adult learners to find ways to get involved so they can advocate for themselves