Annual Conference

Living in Iowa
Living in Iowa has been both enjoyable and frustrating. It has been enjoyable because Waterloo has been a place that feels more like home than any place that I have experienced in my adult life, and frustrating because “Iowa” is so consistently perceived and represented as “White” and “rural” that it erases the many other beautiful qualities that the term “Iowan’ can mean.

My Dreams
My dream is for the Hip Hop Literacy 319 to reach a point where the program produces college-ready, multi-skilled, internationally traveled youth on a regular basis.

A Teacher Who Changed My Life
William Appling, my Music teacher at Western Reserve Academy (high school) in Hudson, OH, changed my life because he modeled the fact that Black Excellence should be a norm and that Black people shouldn’t take a back seat to anyone.

What #DIVERSITYISOURSTRENGTH means to me
Diversity is our strength means that we have minds open to learn from people from all walks of life, youth and elders, the broad spectrum of races, cultures, gender identities and sexualities. It is a disposition of freedom because fear and ignorance no longer block us from access to deeply knowing the joy and fulfilment of the true diversity made possible by God.

early reading, language composition and oral rehearsal, and supporting children’s intellectual development.

His newest book is How to Become a Better Writing Teacher, co-written with Carl Anderson. He is the author of Craft and Process Studies: Units that Provide Writers with Choice of Genre, coauthor of I Am Reading with Kathy Collins, the author of Engaging Young Writers, coauthor of Projecting Possibilities for Writers with Mary Alice Berry, and coauthor with Katie Wood Ray of Already Ready and Watch Katie and Matt Sit Down and Teach Up, a video enhance ebook that combines video and text to examine conferring with young writers. Matt is also the co editor with Ellin Keene of The Teacher You Want to Be: Essays about Children, Learning, and Teaching. Matt lives outside of Cincinnati, Ohio with Bridget, his wife, four kids, and beloved dog.

After her son was diagnosed with dyslexia and depression, she began her deep dive into effective literacy instruction for all children. She is the author of the book, 7 Mighty Moves: Research-Backed, Classroom-Tested Strategies to Ensure K-3 Reading Success. She loves being in the classroom every day, teaching kids to read.

• Closing Gaps with Struggling Students such as those with high poverty, in special education or those with cognitive challenges (formative assessment process, feedback, accurate grading).
• Differentiating Instruction & Growing Literacy to meet every student's needs in all content areas.
• Follow-up Coaching for Collective Efficacy from relationship-building to lesson-planning; feedback, learning walks, and goal-getting.

BACKGROUND: She's a former teacher of the year, a Jensen-certified, brain-research trainer for over 25 years and has authored over 14 practical books including her 2019 release: Teaching with the Instructional Cha Chas: 4 Steps to Make Learning Stick (Winner of the 2020 Teacher's Choice Award) and Deeper Learning: 7 Powerful Strategies for In-Depth and Longer-Lasting Learning (co-authored with Eric Jensen). Her unique, customized options will ensure the new learning gets implemented because of extraordinary follow-up coaching skills. She's worked with over 600 schools in 49 states and gets rave reviews from both teachers and leadership alike.

APPROACH: LeAnn Nickelsen gives you the “whole package” as a trainer. She always listens first, then works to customize and personalize your event based on exactly what you and your staff/students need. She role models every skill for your staff to show HOW it's done. She shares real stories and examples from schools to drive strong, getto-grade-level achievement. This means you get a passionate, engaging and highly practical training that your staff can implement immediately to raise student learning.

THE BUZZ: Read what her raving fans said about her recent work: “LeAnn has been an amazing support for Westlawn Elementary over the last two years. She immediately understood our struggle and instantly began working on ways to transform our campus. She contributed tremendously in changing our campus culture to having a growth mindset, and most importantly, helping us believe we as a campus could be successful. She continues to help motivate and focus our campus. We believe the possibilities are endless! LeAnn's ability to communicate with teachers and assess the educational and emotional needs of a student is outstanding.” Nichole S. & Kiandra W., Texarkana, TX.

Contact LeAnn at: leann@maximizelearninginc.com

She is also the illustrator of FRANKENSLIME and VALENSLIME. Ashley is a West Virginia native and earned her BA from Alderson Broaddus University. She earned her MA in Arts Administration from the University of Kentucky. She also studied traditional animation under the direction of Don Bluth. Ashley lives and works in North Carolina where she creates artwork that she hopes brings lots of laughs to others.
Email: ashley@ashleybelote.com
Event: Authors on the Move, Author’s Panel

She is a graduate of the College of Charleston and the French Culinary Institute. Victoria worked in restaurants in New York before returning to Charleston, South Carolina, which she considers home, with her husband, two kids, and a giant mutt. When she isn’t writing, she is reading, cooking, or chasing her children. Victoria is the daughter of the late beloved New York Times bestselling author Dorothea Benton Frank. She released her first novel, Magnolia Summer, in June 2023 and is currently working on the next one to be released at the beginning of 2025.
Email: (Victoria’s Publicist is Ryan Nelwater – send correspondence to her: ryan@nelwater.com)
Event: Authors on the Move, Author’s Panel

Dancing in the Storm, Flying Over Water, One True Way, Ruby Lee & Me, and The Ballad of Jessie Pearl. Her books have been featured on many state award lists and have received acclaimed reviews. Of Words & Water—The Story of Wilma Dykeman is the fourth book in her picture book series, along with Saving Granddaddy’s Stories, She Sang for the Mountains, and Story Quilts. Shannon currently lives in Asheville, where she can see the mountains every day.
Email: sdhitch@gmail.com
Event: Authors on the Move, Author’s Panel

[the Botner Superior Teaching Award and the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award]. Lester is now a full-time writer and consultant working with schools throughout the United States. His academic publications include many books some of which are: Reading with Children, The Writing Workshop: Working Through the Hard Parts, Cracking Open the Author’s Craft, Unwrapping the Read Aloud, Bullying Hurts, and Critical Comprehension to name a few. In addition, Lester is also the author of several children’s books including: The Sunsets of Miss Olivia Wiggins, Trevor’s Wiggly-Wobbly Tooth, Saturdays and Tea Cakes, Jake’s 100th Day of School, The King of Bees, Snow Day!, Three Hens and a Peacock, and Three Hens, a Peacock, and an Enormous Egg. His newest book, A Cat Like That, will be release in January 2025.
Email: LesterLaminack@gmail.com
Event: Authors on the Move, Break-Out Session

was an ALA Notable Book, a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, a top 10 Kids Indie Next Pick and an NPR, iBooks and Parents Magazine best book of the year for children. The book has been optioned for television by Sony Tristar. Natalie’s other novels include The Key to Extraordinary (2016), The Problim Children series (2017), and Over the Moon (2019). These novels have won accolades from Entertainment Weekly, Junior Library Guild, SIBA, Amazon and Bank Street College of Education, among others. Silverswift, her first Audible Original, was published in 2020. Hummingbird, her seventh (and most personal) novel for kids, was published in August 2022. In January 2023, it was awarded a Schneider Family Honor Award by the American Library Association. He most recent novel, The Witching Wind, was released on September 3, 2024. Natalie writes in the shadows beside a sunny window in Chattanooga, Tennessee. She loves adventuring with her husband, Justin, and their dogs.
Email: NatalieLloydAuthor@gmail.com
Event: Authors on the Move, Author’s Panel

in their middle grade series are rooted in the magic of nature. Angela is a South Carolina native and a former award-winning journalist, turned media specialist who runs her own business, May Media and PR, LLC. She uses her media relations experience to help promote books, events, and positive community stories to the public. Angela has been working with Mary Alice Monroe for more than ten years as her assistant and PR manager. The Islanders is their first book together. The third book in the series, Shipwrecked, was released on June 18, 2024.
Email: angelamariemay@gmail.com
Event: Authors on the Move, Author’s Panel (Moderator)

the bestselling Tristan Strong series, the first of which was awarded a Coretta Scott King Author Honor. Kwame is the co-author of Last Gate of The Emperor with Prince Joel Makonnen, from Scholastic Books, and the editor of the #1 New York Times bestselling anthology Black Boy Joy, published by Delacorte Press. And if you weren’t tired of listening to Kwame’s bio, there’s more, because Kwame is also a Publisher with his imprint Freedom Fire, a collaboration with Disney Books! His newest middle grade adventure, Jax Freeman and the Phantom Shriek, is a Freedom Fire title and launched October 2024. A Howard University graduate and a Midwesterner now in North Carolina, he survives on Dad jokes and Cheez-Its.
Email: k.mabalia@gmail.com
Event: Authors on the Move, Author’s Panel

and When Black Girls Dream Big empower young readers to dream and live big and remind them of their strength and potential. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama with her husband and three young children.
Email: info@tanisiamoore.com
Event: Authors on the Move, Author’s Panel

The Ocean Alphabet Book and since then he has written over 90 books. Jerry has a multitude of fun children's alphabet books and imaginative fiction, including The Icky Bug Alphabet Book; The Construction Alphabet Book; The Skeleton Book, and Who Will Be My Valentine This Year? His newest series, Who Would Win , shows what would happen if some of his favorite animals faced off in the wild. Jerry enjoys visiting schools and talking to children all over the US and in other countries. He grew up going to Peggotty Beach with his family doing all sorts of crazy stuff on the water with my 72 Cousins! You can read all about it in his book, Ocean Cousins.
Email: jerry@jerrypallotta.com
Event: Authors on the Move, Breakout Session

history, science, and poetry. He is a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist, two-time winner of the North Carolina Young Adult Book Award, and recipient of New York’s Bankstreet College Claudia Lewis Award for Poetry. Wolf’s YA novel in verse, The Watch that Ends the Night: Voices from the Titanic, was included on Booklist’s 50 Best YA Books of All Time. Allan Wolf’s dynamic author talks and poetry presentations for all ages are inspiring, informative, and entertaining. Florida Reading Quarterly calls Wolf “the gold standard of performing poetry.” Wolf believes in the healing powers of poetry recitation and has committed to memory nearly a thousand poems.
Email: allanwolf100@gmail.com
Event: Authors On the Move, Author Panel