Rebecca Silverman

Chair

Stanford University

Rebecca D. Silverman is the Judy Koch Professor of Education the Stanford Graduate School of Education. She began her career in education as an elementary school teacher in her hometown of New Orleans, Louisiana. Passionate about supporting children’s literacy development, she earned her master’s and doctoral degrees in language and literacy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She studies language and literacy development and instruction for children in early childhood through elementary school.

Young (Young-Suk) Grace Kim

Past Chair / Chair Advisor

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.

Sabina R. Neugebauer

Secretary/Treasurer

Temple University

Dr. Sabina Rak Neugebauer's research focuses on the literacy development of traditionally underserved students in under-performing elementary and middle schools. her research examines two essential components of literacy development: vocabulary and reading motivation. Dr. Neugebauer investigates these two facets of reading at three complementary levels of analysis (individual, classroom, and school context) to more comprehensively identify ways to support students in achieving equitable educational outcomes.

Christina L. Dobbs

Program Chair

Boston University

Dr. Christina L. Dobbs is an assistant professor and director of the English Education program. Her research interests include academic language development, the argumentative writing of students, and professional development for secondary content teachers. Her work has been published in the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, Reading Research Quarterly, Professional Development in Education, and the Journal of School Leadership. She is the author of several books, including Investigating Disciplinary Literacy (2017) and Disciplinary Literacy Inquiry & Instruction (2019). She is a former high school teacher in Houston, Texas, as well as a literacy coach and reading specialist.

Lori Bruner

Co-Program Chair

University at Albany

Lori Bruner is an assistant professor in the School of Education at the University at Albany. She received her Ph.D. in Curriculum, Instruction, and Teacher Education from Michigan State University, with a concentration on Language and Literacy. Broadly, her research explores how texts (both printed and digital) can support early literacy development, with a particular interest in how digital media can support children’s vocabulary learning. Dr. Bruner was named a Reading Hall of Fame Emerging Scholar Fellow in 2022 and is the recipient of multiple research awards for her work: the 2023 ILA Timothy and Cynthia Shanahan Outstanding Dissertation Award, the 2023 AERA Research in Reading and Literacy Dissertation Award for Literacy Excellence, and the 2024 AERA Vocabulary Research Award.

Kevin Wong

Program Chair Advisor

Pepperdine University

Dr. Kevin M. Wong is an Assistant Professor of Education and Chair of the MA in TESOL Program in the Graduate School of Education and Psychology at Pepperdine University. Dr. Wong draws from his biracial, multilingual upbringing in Hong Kong to examine language learning among children, with a particular interest in new language learning and heritage language maintenance. As a former elementary public school teacher, Dr. Wong seeks educational equity for linguistically and culturally diverse students in Pre-Kindergarten to Grade 12 contexts.

Janna McClain

Newsletter Editor

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.

Julian Levine

Webmaster

University of California, Irvine

Julian Levine is a doctoral student at UCI School of Education, interested in research pertaining to language learning, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. He holds a B.A. in economics with a minor in psychology from UC San Diego and an M.A. in education with a focus on social research methodologies from UC Berkeley.