Dear Friends:  

I'm writing to inform you that I am leaving my role as moderator of the NIFL-Poverty-Race-Literacy Discussion List. The primary reason is that my current work schedule does not leave me much time to devote to this task. The topic of this discussion list is important, however, and you deserve a moderator who will work to stimulate discussions that help us all explore issues of the '-isms' and how they affect self-perception and, hence, literacy acquisition. So it is time for me to pass the torch...

I started this list, sponsored by NIFL, in 2000 because I felt that the '-isms' are a most critical issue in our field of literacy education but, nonetheless, an issue that often goes unacknowledged and unaddressed. When the list first got off the ground, the response was incredible: subscribers were describing their own or family members' or  friends' experiences with discrimination. It was exciting to see the support for this topic. What I did not know how to do well was to move us from acknowledging the '-isms' to discussing how adult literacy organizations can minimize the effects of poverty and racism to create culturally responsive programs. Perhaps the new moderator can make that happen now that the Poverty-Race-Literacy List is moving to a fully-moderated format.

I am happy to introduce Donna Brien as your new list moderator. Many of you already know her as content coordinator for the National Institute for Literacy Workforce Education Special Collection and the moderator of the Workplace Literacy Discussion List. Donna is based at the Center for Literacy (CLS) at the University of Tennessee 
in Knoxville. She has been a member of the Poverty-Race-Literacy Discussion List for several years and has often contributed to the list. Please join me in welcoming Donna, and please give her your support. 

I have learned a lot from all of you over the past five years, and I shall treasure that. Thank you for your participation, your honest exchanges, your commitment to this important topic.  I will remain on the list and I look forward to the continuing discussions.

Sincerely,

-Mary Ann Corley