The National Council of Teachers of English has announced the winners of its Early Career Educator of Color Leadership Awards. Practicing preK to university-level literacy educators of color who are in the first five years of a paid teaching career and who aspire to build a career in literacy education are eligible for recognition. Two of this year’s six recipients are Black faculty members at universities.
Adedoyin Ogunfeyimi is an assistant professor of composition in the Division of Communication and The Arts at the University of Pittsburgh, Bradford. Earlier, Dr. Ogunfeyimi taught courses in writing studies, rhetoric, speech, and Africana studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire.
Dr. Ogunfeyimi earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English writing and literature at the University of Lagos in Nigeria. He holds a Ph.D. in English writing and rhetoric from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Hiawatha Smith is an assistant professor of literacy education at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. He primarily teaches courses on children’s and adolescent literature and English language arts methods. He is the director of the graduate elementary education program and supervises preservice teachers.
Dr. Smith holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in elementary education from North Carolina A&T State University. He earned a Ph.D. in literacy education from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
