About Us

Tonya Bolden
(Founding Member and
​Previous Contributor)

Tonya Bolden, a native New Yorker, is the award-winning author, co-author, and editor or more than 40 books, most of them for children and young adults. To learn more about her work, visit tonyaboldenbooks.com.

Joyce Butler
(Previous Contributor)

Joyce Butler is a University of Georgia Red Clay Writing Fellow and a teaching consultant for the National Writing Project. She has been a 4th and 5th grade teacher for the past five years in Clarke and Barrow county school systems in Georgia and is currently serving as a digital learning teacher for 5th grade. Her interests include implementing social justice
 learning through content areas and making family connections to promote student success.

Mary Ann Cappiello
(Founding Member)

Mary Ann Cappiello teaches courses in children’s literature and literacy methods at Lesley University, blogs about teaching with children’s literature at The Classroom Bookshelf, a School Library Journal blog, and is a former chair of NCTE’s Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction K-8. 

Amina Chaudhri

Amina Chaudhri is an associate professor at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago, where she teaches courses in children's literature, literacy, and social studies. She is a reviewer for Booklist and a former committee member of NCTE's Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children.

Erika Thulin Dawes
​(Founding Member)

Erika Thulin Dawes is Professor of Language and Literacy at Lesley University  where she teaches courses in children’s literature and early childhood literacy. She blogs about teaching with children’s literature at The Classroom Bookshelf, a School Library Journal blog, and is a former chair of NCTE’s Charlotte Huck Award for Outstanding Fiction for Children.

Jennifer M. Graff
(Founding Member)

Jennifer M. Graff is an associate professor at the University of Georgia, where she teaches courses in children’s literature and literacy instruction (P-8). She is the current past-president of CLA, and a former committee member of NCTE’s Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children.

Xenia Hadjioannou
​(Founding Member)

Xenia Hadjioannou is an associate professor of language and literacy education at Penn State’s Harrisburg campus. She is vice president of the Children’s Literature Assembly and serves as the assembly’s website manager. She is co-editor of the CLA Blog.

Scott Riley
​(Founding Member)

Scott Riley is a middle school instructional coach at Singapore American School where he supports and facilitates professional learning in and out of classrooms. Scott is an active participant of NCTE, CLA, and SCBWI, a former committee member of NCTE’s Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children, and debut picturebook author of The Floating Field.

Barb Rosenstock
​(Founding Member)

Barb Rosenstock is the author of many picturebook biographies for children. Her books have been awarded Orbis Pictus and Sydney Taylor Honors, among many other awards. Otis and Will Discover the Deep, illustrated by Katherine Roy, won a SCBWI Golden Kite Award, and The Noisy Paint Box, illustrated by Mary Grandpré, was awarded a Caldecott Honor.

Donna Sabis-Burns​​

Donna Sabis-Burns is a Group Leader in the discretionary grant program at the Office of Indian Education, U.S. Department of Education in Washington, DC.  Her research interests include critical multiculturalism and social justice representation in children’s literature. She is a board member of CLA and co-chair of the Inclusivity, Diversity and Equity Committee.  Her interests  include sea glass hunting, photography, painting, and baking.

Jenn Sanders

Jenn Sanders is an Associate Professor of Literacy Education and member of the OSU Writing Project at Oklahoma State University.  Her research focuses on writing pedagogies, writing teacher education, and representations of diversity in children’s/YA literature.  She is the co-founder and co-chair of The Whippoorwill Book Award for diverse representations of rural people and places in YA literature. Jenn has also served as member and chair of the Notable Books for a Global Society (affiliated with the International Literacy Association).

Courtney Shimek
​(Founding Member) 

Courtney Shimek is a former Preschool teacher and an assistant professor at West Virginia University in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction/Literacy Studies. Her research interests include young readers’ approaches to nonfiction picturebooks, the convergence between literacy and play, and teacher education.

Julie Waugh

Julie Waugh shares a 4th grade teaching position at Zaharis Elementary in Mesa, AZ and serves as an Inquiry Coach for Mesa Public Schools.  She delights in the company of children surrounded and inspired by books. A longtime member of NCTE, and an enthusiastic newer member of CLA, Julie is a former committee member of NCTE's Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children.