Literacy Learning Conference

Anita Archer, Ph.D., serves as an educational consultant to state departments and school districts on explicit instruction and literacy. She has presented in all 50 states and many countries including Australia and is the recipient of ten awards honoring her contributions to education. Anita has served on the faculties of three universities including the University of Washington, the University of Oregon, and San Diego State University. She has co-authored numerous curriculum materials including Phonics for Reading (Curriculum Associates), a three-level intervention program, REWARDS (Voyager/Sopris), a five-component literacy intervention program, and a best-selling textbook titled Explicit Instruction: Effective and Efficient Teaching (Guilford Publications).

Nellie Caruso has been a French Immersion teacher since 1999. In addition to teaching in various elementary grades, she also spent several years working as a Literacy Coach. Nellie has completed the Orton-Gillingham course at the Classroom Educator level. In her current role, Nellie not only provides French structured literacy instruction in her classroom, but she is also actively focused on disseminating knowledge and building teacher capacity in her school and beyond. With a Masters degree in French, Nellie is passionate about the intersection of reading science research and FSL instruction. Nellie has a particular interest in using universal screening to inform instruction in the immersion context; she is trained to administer and interpret the data from IDAPEL and Acadience K-6 measures. She is currently a volunteer for IDA Ontario, showcasing her own journey with universal screening in the Literacy Leaders webinar series, and is in the process of completing LETRS training.

Valentina Contesse is a clinical assistant professor of special education in the school of special education, school psychology, and early childhood studies at the University of Florida (UF). Contesse works for the University of Florida Literacy Institute (UFLI) and is the co-author of UFLI Foundations: An Explicit and Systematic Phonics Program. Contesse teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in various UF teacher preparation programs and coordinates professional development for practicing teachers focused on evidence-based reading instruction. Contesse’s scholarship focuses on early literacy instruction and intervention, teacher preparation and training in the area of reading, and the effects of performance feedback on the implementation of evidence-based instructional practices. 

Leigh is an elementary French Immersion teacher living in Huntsville. Before becoming a teacher, she worked in healthcare as a respiratory therapist. Leigh has taken the Orton Gillingham Classroom Educator course, Reading Teacher’s Top Ten Tools (through IDA Ontario, and LOVED it), IDA Ontario’s Basics of Decoding and Spelling course, and Volume 1 of LETRS (currently working on Volume 2). She is trained in Acadience and IDAPEL and is an Acadience Mentor. Leigh enjoys supporting fellow educators as they learn about effective, evidence-based reading instruction for all students and is inspired by them as they shift their practices. She has seen what is possible when students are taught using a Structured Literacy approach and how this can change lives. Leigh would like all educators, including preservice teachers, to be trained in reading science and for all students to have access to teachers with this knowledge.

Angeline Humber is a Teacher Consultant with the Greater Essex County District School Board supporting Early Years (birth to age 8) and French as a Second Language from Kindergarten to Grade 12. In her role, Angeline collaborates with colleagues within her school board as well as regionally, provincially and nationally to build capacity and support educators, students and programs.

Pam Kastner, Ed.D., is an educational consultant at the Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network (PaTTAN) Harrisburg, where she serves as the state lead for literacy in Pennsylvania.

Dr. Kastner along with the PaTTAN Literacy team has led Pennsylvania’s Dyslexia Screening and Early Literacy Intervention Pilot Program, extension and expansion.

Dr. Kastner serves on the Pennsylvania Taskforce for Higher Education. The taskforce's goal is to embed the science of reading and Structured Literacy in higher education institutions. She presented at the National Summit on the Science of Reading in Higher Education in 2022, and is on the steering committee developing a Summit on the Science of Reading in Higher Education in Pennsylvania planned for May 2023.

Dr. Kastner is an adjunct professor at Mount Saint Joseph University in the reading science program, where she teachers in the Masters’ and Doctoral program.

She serves as president of The Reading League Pennsylvania, The Reading League Journal’s Practitioner Editorial Board, and is a member of The Science of Reading: A Defining Movement coalition.

Chantal Lafontaine œuvre depuis 21 ans au Conseil des écoles publiques de l'Est de l'Ontario, en tant qu'enseignante au primaire/moyen et conseillère pédagogique en littératie, ALF et PANA. Depuis ses débuts en enseignement, sa passion pour l'enseignement de la littératie l'ont incité à s'impliquer dans l'élaboration de nombreuses ressources pédagogiques pour le personnel enseignant francophone de l'Ontario telles que des vidéos de modélisation, des plateformes d'apprentissage interactif pour les élèves et des guides pédagogiques pour les enseignants. Au cours de ses dernières années en tant que conseillère pédagogique, le cœur de ses efforts a été consacré à l'accompagnement du personnel enseignant francophone dans la mise en œuvre de pratiques d'enseignement de la lecture et de l'écriture fondées sur des données probantes. D'ailleurs, elle collabore présentement avec ONLit.org afin de pouvoir naviguer avec tous les enseignants francophones de la province vers l'adoption du nouveau programme-cadre de français.

Dr. Lane is the Director of the University of Florida Literacy Institute (UFLI) and an associate professor of special education. She is also the Irving and Rose Fien Endowed Professor of Education and the director of the James Patterson Literacy Challenge.

Dr. Lane's research focuses on effective reading instruction and intervention and helping teachers develop the knowledge and skills they need to teach reading effectively, especially using evidence-based practices to promote the development of foundational reading skills. She is author of UFLI Foundations: An Explicit and Systematic Phonics Program.

Stacey is a school board speech-language pathologist who is passionate about helping students with developmental language disorder (DLD) and dyslexia. She has been registered with the Ontario College of Teachers and the College of Audiologists and Speech-Language Pathologists of Ontario for over 20 years. Many students who are referred to Stacey for speech-language concerns also experience difficulty acquiring reading and writing skills. Much of Stacey’s work in Ontario schools involves assessing students with speech, language, and literacy disorders and consulting with their families and educators. Most recently, Stacey was a consultant and content contributor to the newly revised Ontario Language curriculum as well as a lecturer and clinical educator at Western University. She takes great pride in her advocacy work with IDA Ontario.

Cheryl Urbanczyk, OCT, is career educator who has been a classroom teacher and administrator in various settings in the US and Canada. Currently, Cheryl is a Principal in the Ontario public school system. When her own daughter was diagnosed with dyslexia, it led to many years of learning about how best to teach literacy. Cheryl is a Fellow-in-Training with the Orton-Gillingham Academy and a Structured Literacy Dyslexia Specialist (CERI/IDA). These experiences, both personal and professional, give her a unique expertise to understand literacy and dyslexia in the wider education context as well as understand the impact of literacy as an equity issue on student success. Cheryl developed ‘The Culture View of Reading’ as a way to support this effort.

Kate Winn has been teaching since 2000 with the PVNCCDSB, and is currently in a kindergarten classroom. She is a passionate advocate for evidence-based literacy instruction for all students, and her IDA Ontario webinar “Structured Literacy in Kindergarten: 5 Changes That Made All My Students Readers” has been viewed by more than 12,000 educators worldwide. She is the host and coproducer of IDA Ontario’s hit podcast, Reading Road Trip. Kate has presented to the Minister of Education, OCSOA (Ontario Catholic Supervisory Officers Association) and teacher federation representatives, and presented on Fluency with Nellie Caruso and Leigh Fettes at last year's Literacy Learning Conference. A trained Acadience Reading K-6 Mentor, she was a panelist for the IDA Ontario Literacy Leaders series on assessment. Kate is a Content Lead with ONlit and has facilitated professional development at PVNC and for Ontario boards such as NCDSB, TBCDSB, PDSB, ADSB and HPCDSB. She was a keynote speaker at this year's Alaska Science of Reading Symposium.