Search

Victoria Purcell-Gates is the Canada Research Chair in Early Childhood Literacy for the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia. She studies the ways in which people within communities value and practice literacy in all aspects of their lives. Her interests also include designing early literacy instruction that builds on young children's linguistic, cognitive, cultural, and social models for reading and writing acquired within their home communities. She is a former president of the National Reading Conference and a member of the Reading Hall of Fame. Her latest book is

Maureen Costello, retired director of Teaching Tolerance, has been a teacher and educational leader for over 40 years. Before joining the Southern Poverty Law Center, Costello worked for Scholastic, Inc. and directed the Newsweek Education Program. She began her career as a history and economics teacher at Notre Dame Academy High School in Staten Island. Throughout her career, Costello has been committed to fostering the ideals of democracy and citizenship in young people. She is a graduate of the New School University and the New York University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. In