CLA Board of Director Candidate Statements for the 2027-2029 Term

We are excited to share the slate of nominees for the 2026 elections to the CLA Board of Directors. Ten candidates have been nominated and you will be able to select three candidates who will serve a three-year term from January 1, 2027- December 31, 2029. Be sure to cast your vote during the voting period, October 5-October 16, 2026.  

All candidates responded to the following prompt:

"The Children's Literature Assembly (CLA) of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) is a professional community of children’s literature enthusiasts who advocate the centrality of literature in children’s academic and personal lives. We believe every teacher needs a wide and extensive knowledge base of books published for children and young adults. With this in mind, please create a statement for the ballot (200-word maximum) that speaks to how you envision working with and for the Assembly as a Board Member. Please include any relevant information within your statement."

Below you will find the candidates' statements listed alphabetically. You will be asked to vote for 3 candidates. The three nominees with the most votes will be selected to serve.

Gamze Ar, Bartın University, Türkiye

As a scholar and educator specializing in children’s literature, I would be honored to serve the Children’s Literature Assembly. I am a Lecturer in the Department of Foreign Languages at Bartın University, Türkiye, where I teach children’s and young adult literature, the translation of children’s literature, and courses connecting words, images, and diverse cultural perspectives. My research focuses on African American children’s literature, Black childhood and girlhood, hair and identity, and multimodal picturebooks. My doctoral dissertation examined the construction of Black identity in Jacqueline Woodson’s picture books, and my visiting scholarship at New York University strengthened my commitment to international and interdisciplinary collaboration. I am also currently developing a picturebook series, an experience that enriches my understanding of the creative, pedagogical, and publishing dimensions of children’s literature.

As a Board Member, I would work to expand CLA’s international reach, support inclusive and culturally sustaining approaches to children’s literature, and build meaningful connections among scholars, educators, students, and authors. Drawing on my committee leadership, editorial work, and experience advising funded student research, I would contribute actively to CLA programs and committees. I especially hope to create opportunities for early-career and international members and help translate research into accessible resources for classrooms. I would bring a collaborative, dependable, and globally engaged perspective to CLA’s mission.

Sally Brown, Georgia Southern University

I envision serving the Children’s Literature Assembly by helping educators develop the knowledge, confidence, and critical perspectives needed to select and teach children’s literature that accurately and authentically represents diverse children, families, languages, and communities. As a literacy education professor, former South Carolina public school teacher, and researcher, I bring experience in connecting scholarship, teacher preparation, and classroom practice. My work examines children’s responses to picturebooks, multilingual family literacy, identity-affirming literature, and multimodal meaning-making. My current research with Native-authored children’s literature is especially important to this commitment. Through classroom read-alouds and children’s responses, I am exploring how Native-authored texts can present Indigenous cultures, languages, families, and communities as living and contemporary while creating opportunities to question stereotypes and deepen relational understanding.

As a Board member, I would support CLA’s publications, programs, professional learning, and advocacy; strengthen connections among scholars, teachers, librarians, and families; and help expand access to thoughtfully curated, culturally sustaining literature. I would approach this work collaboratively and with relational accountability, listening to the communities represented in books while advocating for literature as essential to children’s academic learning, identity development, imagination, and sense of belonging.

Desirée W. Cueto, University of Arizona

I am honored to be considered for the Children’s Literature Assembly Board. My career as an educator, scholar, author, and advocate reflects a longstanding commitment to ensuring that children’s literature remains central to the intellectual, creative, and cultural lives of young people.

As co-author with Kathy Short of Essentials of Children’s Literature, 10th edition, and the forthcoming 11th edition, I have had the privilege of helping educators think deeply about literary quality, representation, diversity, and young people’s engagement with books. This work complements my scholarship centering Black epistemologies and youth literature from the African diaspora.

My professional service further reflects these commitments. I currently chair the ALA John Newbery Award Committee, serve on the USBBY Executive Board and CLA Breakfast Committee, and am incoming chair of NCTE’s Committee Against Censorship. These experiences have deepened my commitment to literary excellence, intellectual freedom, and young people’s access to expansive literature.

As a CLA Board member, I would enthusiastically support initiatives including the Journal of Children’s Literature, CLA awards, and opportunities for emerging scholars, teacher leaders, and students, while strengthening connections among scholarship, teaching, advocacy, and communities.

Deanna Day, Washington State University

It would be an honor to serve on the CLA Board. I hope to continue contributing to CLA as a strong voice for children’s literature and to advocate for young people, teachers, and the vital role that children’s literature plays in their lives.

I am deeply committed to literacy development, particularly in the field of children’s literature. My scholarly research has centered around children’s literature with a focus on literature circles, the creative process of authors and illustrators and analyzing children’s and young adult literature. I have published in the Journal of Children’s Literature, The Dragon Lode, Language Arts, Journal of School Connections and others. I have co-edited two books: Teaching Globally: Reading the World Through Literature and Celebrating Poetry Across the K-12 Curriculum.

As a CLA Board member, I would encourage and support literacy research that centers children’s literature and its impact on young readers. I would also advocate for meaningful connections among researchers, educators, authors, illustrators, librarians, and others who champion children’s literature. I believe CLA can bring these voices together and to ensure that children’s literature remains at the heart of literacy education.

Jessica Edwards, Northern Kentucky University

Although I am an instructor of literacy education, my research and personal passion is children's literature. I have been passionate about children's literature since 2008 and have been researching children's literature since 2014. I am active in the children's literature community and continue to collect books to use in my preservice and graduate teacher courses.

Currently, I am asked to teach a children's literature course for my university every summer, to which I look forward each year. I also have experience serving on national advisory boards, as I was once a member of the advisory board for the CL/R SIG as a part of ILA. Although I enjoyed my time working with that group of professionals (and still work with them today), I have wanted to get more involved in the Children's Literature Assembly of NCTE as it more directly aligns with my continued interests. I look forward to working closely with all members of the CLA, encouraging an informed, passionate future of children’s literature. Thank you for your consideration!

Brandi Estey-Burtt, St. Thomas University, Canada

My work as a neurodivergent and disabled scholar recognizes that education presents many challenges for students from marginalized groups.  It has been my great joy to find the CLA community of scholars and educators, who celebrate the potential of transformative children’s literature and who also recognize the deeply political dimensions of such literature in the present moment. 

In my teaching, I work with many preservice teachers and aspiring educators to help them consider the students who have been traditionally excluded from the classroom and why this has been the case. My research examines constructions of autism, accommodations, and inclusion efforts in picturebooks and middle grade novels, and I am the founder and president of STIM: Neurodiversity in Children’s Literature Working Group.  I am currently the 2027 CLA Conference Planning Co-Chair, and my goal as a CLA Board Member is to continue my advocacy for neurodivergent and disabled students, their accommodation needs (such as the sunglasses I’m wearing!), and develop resources on these issues for educators. 

I am honoured to be nominated for the CLA Board, and I am grateful for your consideration.

Erica Holyoke, University of Colorado Denver

As a literacy teacher educator and former elementary and special education teacher, I am interested in children’s literature to engage young people, and educators, in transformative literacy instruction while also expanding whose experiences, languages, identities, and knowledge are present in classrooms. My scholarship focuses on early literacy, teacher learning, and equitable and linguistically responsive approaches to literacy instruction, and children’s literature is an important part of how I work with preservice and practicing teachers.

As a CLA Board Member, I would contribute to efforts that support educators to expand their current knowledge of children’s and young adult literature and support them in making instructional decisions about how that literature is used. I am especially interested in creating stronger connections between research, instruction, and the work of authors and illustrators; supporting teachers in engaging with literature across languages and communities; and expanding opportunities for educators to explore books that may not be as commonly used. I would also bring experience with collaborative professional learning, research-practice partnerships, and literacy teacher education to the Assembly’s ongoing work.

Emily Reed, Dillsburg Elementary School, Northern York County School District

I have been a literature enthusiast since I was a young girl. I remember reading every Scott O'Dell, Madeleine L'Engle, Jean Craighead George, and Gary Paulsen book that I could get my fingers on. My parents provided me with every opportunity with books, library cards, and night time family read-alouds. I later became a adult who continued to be a reading enthusiast,  participating in book clubs and tutoring students and helping them be better readers and writers.

In my educational career as a Literacy Specialist, I strive to create that hunger for reading in all of the students and educators that I come across. I continue to be a big part of the literary community by participating in various book award committees, which enable me to stay on top of current books and authors at all levels. I work at the state level as a part of the Pennsylvania One Book committee focusing on early literacy and teaching families how to make literacy a part of their every day lives. I volunteer as a leader in the Kiwanis organization placing Little Free Libraries across the state and training other leaders on the importance of literature.

Organizations like the Children's Literature Assembly are important because they continue to advocate in creative ways to make literature a part of the educational and academic lives of educators across the nation. The more educators know about books, the more they can infuse that joy to those they come to interact. As a part of the board of Children's Literature Assembly, I hope to become more involved in creating programming and tools and resources that educators can use to infuse that joy and love of reading, through workshops, webinars, book clubs, and much much more so that one day all educators can be a part of the group of literary enthusiasts that Children's Literature Assembly is comprised.

Islah Tauheed, Columbia University

There is something magical about matching the right child with the right book. The book they reach for again and again. The book that opens a world they never imagined. The book that shows them more about who they are. All children deserve access to that magic.

At a time when books, identities, and ideas are increasingly being challenged and censored, I believe we must fiercely protect children’s right to read. If a child is excited about a book, that is something to celebrate, not limit. Reading changes futures, and ensuring every child can find themselves within our libraries and classrooms is essential to the work of literacy.

As James Baldwin reminds us, “The children are always ours, every single one of them.” As a CLA Board Member, I would advocate for those children and for the educators, authors, and illustrators who put books into their hands.

I bring nearly two decades as an elementary educator and school leader, experience as a teacher educator and literacy consultant, and service on NCTE’s Elementary Section Steering Committee. My career has been grounded in a lifelong love of children, teachers, and books. This love will continue to be the north star of my work.

Nancy Valdez-Gainer, Texas State University

I believe deeply in the transformative power of diverse children’s literature and in the vital role it plays in shaping children’s lives. As a former dual language teacher, children’s literature was a lifeline for building classroom community, nurturing students’ identities and sense of belonging, and fostering the joy of reading. Today, children’s literature remains central to the literacy courses I teach at Texas State University and to my work as director of the Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children’s Book Award. In this role, one of my key responsibilities is ensuring that culturally affirming books reach students, families, teachers, and librarians.

Like many NCTE members and the students in our classrooms, I did not have the opportunity to see myself reflected in books as a child. That experience continues to shape my commitment to expanding access to literature in which all children can see themselves and their communities.

As a CLA board member, I would work collaboratively to champion educators’ rights to teach with diverse children’s literature and children’s rights to access books that affirm their identities, experiences, and communities.

Ballot Access

You will be asked to log in to your CLA account to access the ballot.
Voting begins on Monday, October 5 at 9 am EST. Please submit your ballot by Friday October 16, 2026 at 5 pm EST.

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