Current Chair
University of California, Irvine
Young-Suk Grace Kim, Ed.D., is a professor and senior associated dean at the University of California, Irvine. She received her Ed.D. at Harvard University in Human Development and Psychology with a concentration on Language and Literacy, and a minor concentration on Quantitative Policy Analysis in Education. She was a former classroom teacher in San Francisco, California. Dr. Kim’s primary research areas include development of language, cognition, and literacy skills and instruction across languages and writing systems, including dyslexia and dysgraphia. Her work includes reading comprehension, reading fluency, listening comprehension, academic language, higher order cognitive skills, written composition for English-speaking children, Dual Language Learners, English learners, and children learning to read other languages (e.g., Korean, Spanish, Chinese). Her research has been supported by the Institute of Education Science, U. S. Department of Education, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the National Science Foundation. She is the Editor-In-Chief for the journal, Scientific Studies of Reading.
Program Chair Advisor
Pennsylvania State University
Amy Crosson holds an Ed.D. in language and literacy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education where her dissertation was funded by an Adolescent Literacy Fellowship from the National Academy Education. Crosson’s research focuses on classroom-based interventions to support the academic language development of elementary and middle school students in urban schools, with special attention to academic vocabulary, discussion quality, and argument writing. In particular, she focuses on the language and literacy development of English Language Learners. Crosson is currently studying how students’ source language resources can be leveraged to promote academic language and literacy in English.
Treasurer & Secretary
Vanderbilt University
Program Chair
University of Buffalo, SUNY
Blythe E. Anderson is an Assistant Professor of Literacy Education in the Department of Learning and Instruction in the Graduate School of Education at the University at Buffalo. Dr. Anderson earned her PhD in Curriculum, Instruction, and Teacher Education from Michigan State University, specializing in Language and Literacy Education. A former first-grade teacher and district literacy coordinator, her research focuses on instructional practices, professional development, and curriculum that promote oral language and vocabulary development—especially in contexts outside of literacy instruction. Specifically, she’s interested in generative approaches to vocabulary instruction that promote curiosity for and interest in words and support students with developing tools for independent word learning.
Newsletter Editor
Middle Tennessee State University
Dr. Janna McClain is assistant professor of Elementary and Special Education at Middle Tennessee State University. Having spent nearly a decade teaching language in K-12 public school settings, Dr. McClain’s research focuses on preparing teachers to meet the increasing
linguistic demands of the classroom, both in terms of honoring the diverse linguistic backgrounds of students as well as supporting student access to the language of school.
Past Chair
University of Nevada, Reno
Dr. Townsend's research centers on the academic language development of adolescent students, with specific attention to vocabulary, comprehension, and disciplinary literacy. She examines both the unique academic language demands of the disciplines and effective instructional strategies to help students understand and use academic language in and across academic disciplines. Her current project, funded by the Spencer Foundation, is an intervention comparing how different types of background knowledge and academic language scaffolding impact the reading comprehension of multilingual adolescents. Dr. Townsend's work has been published in Reading Research Quarterly, The Elementary School Journal, The Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, and Topics in Language Disorders, as well as in other journals and multiple books. Dr. Townsend is a Tibbetts Distinguished Teacher Award Winner. She created the innovative Virtual Reading Clinic in the online M.Ed. Program in Reading Curriculum & Instruction to support remote and rural teachers in a graduate-level practicum experience.
Social Media Communication
Julian Levine is a doctoral student at UCI School of Education, interested in research pertaining to second language acquisition, vocabulary acquisition, vocabulary assessment, and reading comprehension. He holds a BA in economics from UC San Diego and a Master's in edcuation (social research methodologies) from UC Berkeley's School of Education. He has studied several languages (Korean, Japanese, Spanish, et al.) to varying degrees of proficiency and is interested in helping others to learn languages in an efficient and enjoyable manner. In his free time, in collaboration with his brother, he produces animated music videos for kids (EnglishLearningSongs.com).
2020-2021 Dianna Townsend
2018-2019 Tanya Wright
2016-2017 Kathy Ganske
2015 Anita Hernandez
2012-2013-2014 Guy Trainen
2010-2011 Lori Helman
Nominations and Elections Committee
Notable Vocabulary Researcher Award Committee
Student Vocabulary Paper Committee
Proposal Reviewers