Kids Need to Read Board of Directors
Reading is about both solitude and connection. I read a book alone, but emerge from the story feeling closer to everyone in the world.– Shannon Hale, Book of a Thousand Days
PJ Haarsma, Denise Gary, Sherrie Miller and James Blasingame
© Bruce Matsunaga
James Blasingame, Ph.D.
Chairman
Dr. James Blasingame is an associate professor of English at Arizona State University, where he teaches methods courses in the teaching of writing and young adult literature and supervises student teachers. He is president of the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of the National Council of Teachers of English, and former co-editor The ALAN Review. He is also a former president of the Arizona English Teachers Association, and serves on the Arizona Department of Education English Language Arts Standards Committee. James is the author of numerous books and publications about young adult literature, including Books That Don’t Bore ‘Em: Young Adult Books that Speak to This Generation (Scholastic, 2007), and Gary Paulsen: Teen Reads/ Student Companions to Young Adult Literature (Greenwood Press, 2007). He also creates the Books for Adolescents pages of the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, the teen literacy publication of the International Reading Association. His guest blog about young adult literature appears regularly on The Answer Sheet for the Washington Post. James received the Arizona State University 2008 Professor of the Year Award, the 2007 Arizona State University Professor of the Year Special Recognition Award, and was named the 2007 Arizona State University College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Distinguished Teacher of the Humanities. He is a recipient of the Arbuthnot Award from the International Reading Association, and the Lifetime Distinguished Service Award from the Arizona English Teachers’ Association.
Denise Gary
President and Executive Director
Co-founder
During her service as founding chairman (2008-2009), Denise Gary organized the fledgling Kids Need to Read project into a nonprofit foundation. She currently oversees all activities of Kids Need to Read, bringing thirty years of office management and customer service experience to the daily operations and management of the foundation. Denise was a home school teacher for her two sons during their junior high and high school years with outstanding results. She successfully taught one son with a communication delay, helping him to overcome his reading difficulties and to move on to a successful career as a digital artist. This fuels her desire to help reluctant readers learn the power and joy reading can bring to their lives.
Kristen M. Klein
Secretary
Kristen Klein is a marketing associate, staff writer and administrative assistant for Lytham Partners, LLC. She produces Kids Need to Read’s newsletter, and develops marketing tools and graphics for the foundation. Kristen and her husband welcomed their first child, Samuel Eli, on May 12, 2009. As a founding officer, Kristen's commitment was essential to the creation of Kids Need to Read.
Debbie O'Neill
Chief Financial Officer
Debbie O'Neill is the controller of a nonprofit, 350-bed, four hospital system in eastern North Carolina. She is a CPA with twenty-three years of healthcare financial management experience and four years of audit experience. Debbie is the mother of three; all college students at present. She is a lifelong, avid reader who recognizes the importance of instilling in children a love of reading at a young age. Debbie lives in Rocky Mount, North Carolina with her husband Rob and whichever of her children happens to be home from school at the time.
F. Diane Elhard
Director
Diane Elhard uses her twenty-three years of experience as the owner and office manager of Howard’s Brake and Front End Service to help oversee the management of Kids Need to Read. She is the mother of two grown daughters who still love to read and one new grandson.
KaaVonia Hinton-Johnson, Ph.D.
Director
Dr. KaaVonia Hinton-Johnson is an assistant professor in Teaching & Learning at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. Her scholarship focuses on literacy materials created specifically for blacks; literature for adults, children and young adults, especially works labeled multicultural; critical biographies of black writers, and literary criticism. KaaVonia is the author of Angela Johnson: Poetic Prose (Scarecrow Press, 2006) and Sharon M. Draper: Embracing Literacy (Scarecrow Press, 2009), and co-author (with Gail K. Dickinson) of Integrating Multicultural Literature in Libraries and Classrooms in Secondary Schools (Linworth, 2007) and (with Katherine T. Bucher) of Young Adult Literature: Exploration, Evaluation, and Appreciation (Prentice Hall, 2009).
Teri Lesesne
Director
Teri S. Lesesne (rhymes with insane) is a Professor at Sam Houston State University where she teaches graduate and undergraduate classes in young adult and children’s literature in the Department of Library Science. She is a 10 year veteran of the middle school English classroom, having taught in Alief I.S.D. Teri coordinates an annual YA conference for her university, now in its 19th year. A frequent speaker at conferences, Teri also visits schools each year to tell students about good books to read. She presents one day YA seminars across the country when she is not teaching. Her latest publication is Making the Match: The Right Book for the Right Reader at the Right Time, Grades 4-12 from Stenhouse Publishers. Look for her second book in a couple of years (tentative title: Naked Reading). Teri’s columns have appeared in a variety of journals including: Signal, The Journal of Reading, English in Texas, The Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, and The ALAN Review. Currently, she writes the YA review column for Voices from the Middle and an author interview column for Teacher Librarian. She serves on the Advisory Board for The ALAN Review, The Reading Teacher, English Journal, Voices from the Middle, and VOYA. She serves as co-chair of the Middle Level Section Steering Committee of NCTE. In her spare time, Teri is the proud grandmother of three charming granddaughters and three handsome grandsons. Teri is a licensed motorcyclist who hopes to find some time soon to continue exploring the back roads of Texas on her “hog.”
Kids Need to Read Advisory Council
PJ Haarsma
Founder
PJ Haarsma is the author of The Softwire series, creator of the online game Rings of Orbis, and presenter and speaker on behalf of children’s literature. He is the recipient of the ABC (Association of Booksellers for Children) New Voices in Children’s Literature Award. PJ’s efforts to incorporate new technology as a literacy tool were featured in the prestigious Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literature and The New York Times. He uses his position as an author to garner publicity, support and funds for the organization. He is the father of a young daughter who loves books.
Nathan Fillion
Co-founder
Widely recognized for being adept at both drama and comedy, actor Nathan Fillion commanded the screen as the beloved anti-hero, Captain Malcolm Reynolds, in the critically-acclaimed television series, Firefly (2002), and its big-screen spin-off, Serenity (2005). He is currently starring in the ABC television series, Castle. Nathan's parents are both English teachers, giving him a profound respect for the importance of literacy. He was instrumental in the founding of Kids Need to Read and continues to enthusiastically support the foundation.
Margaret Bostrom
Margaret Bostrom holds a BA in English from Scripps College, and will begin pursuing a Phd in English Literature in the fall of 2011. At the moment she lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she works as a writer and editor for a women's travel magazine, and volunteers as a writing tutor. Initially homeschooled, Margaret learned to read at a very young age and has been in love with books ever since. She believes in the importance of reading to our ability to imagine, communicate, and create. For that reason, Margaret is a benefactor to Kids Need to Read through the Amy B. Morrill Charitable Lead Annuity Trust.