Nevada Reading Week Educator Kick-Off Event

Elfrieda Hiebert, Ph.D. “Freddy” is President and CEO of TextProject, a nonprofit that provides resources to support higher reading levels. Freddy was awarded the prestigious 2015 Oscar S. Causey Award for her outstanding contributions to reading research. She is also a research associate at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Dr. Hiebert has worked in the field of early reading acquisition for 45 years, first as a teacher’s aide and teacher of primary-level students in California and, subsequently, as a teacher and researcher. Her research addresses how fluency, vocabulary, and knowledge can be fostered through appropriate texts. Dr. Hiebert has influenced the development of myPerspectives in the areas of Vocabulary, Text Complexity, and Assessment and is also author of Savvas programs ReadyGen and iLit.

An award-winning author, teacher, and researcher, Ernest Morrell is the University of Notre Dame Coyle Professor in Literacy Education, Director of the Center for Literacy Education, and director of NCTE’s James R. Squire Office for Policy Research in the English Language Arts. Ernest is an elected member of the National Academy of Education, an elected Fellow of the American Educational Research Association, and a past president of the National Council of Teachers of English.  From 2015-2024 Ernest has been ranked among the top  university-based education scholars in the RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings. Ernest is also the recipient of the  NCTE Distinguished Service Award, the Kent Williamson Leadership Award from the Conference on English Leadership and the Divergent Award for Excellence in 21st Century Literacies. Ernest was an award-winning English teacher and coach in Northern California and he now works with schools, districts, families, and out of school programs across the country to develop innovative and empirically based literacy practices that foster engaged and joyful readers, writers, thinkers, and speakers.  Ernest is the author of more than 100 articles and book chapters, and fifteen books including Best Practices in Literacy Instruction, Every Child a Super Reader , Tuned in Teaching, New Directions in Teaching English, and Critical Media Pedagogy: Teaching for Achievement in City Schools, which was awarded Outstanding Academic Title by Choice Magazine of the American Library Association. He earned his Ph.D. in Language, Literacy and Culture from the University of California at Berkeley where he received the Outstanding Dissertation Award.  Dr. Morrell has influenced the development of myPerspectives in Assessment, Writing & Research, Student Engagement, and Collaborative Learning.