Jeffrey D. Wilhelm.Jeffrey Wilhelm is Distinguished Professor of English Education at Boise State University in Boise, Idaho. He is the founding director of the Boise State Writing Project that supports over 3,000 teachers each year with over 110,000 contact hours of professional development. He is a highly-regarded author and co-author of over 37 books about literacy and literacy education. He has also edited several book series and written several books for children and young adults. Jeff has devoted his professional career to helping teachers help their students. He is particularly devoted to assisting students who are considered to be reluctant, struggling, or at-risk.
His research agenda is organized around creating supportive inquiry-oriented contexts for developing and performing literacy, literate behaviors, and literate identities. His research demonstrates how inquiry environments are powerful contexts for learning literacy and achieving deep understanding. He has won the two top research awards in English Education a total of three times: the NCTE Promising Research Award for "You Gotta BE the Book"(Teachers College Press) and the Russell Award for Distinguished Research in the Teaching of English first for "Reading Don't Fix No Chevys" (2005)and then for Reading Unbound: Promoting the Power of Pleasure Reading (2016). Jeff is a frequently-requested speaker at state, regional, national, and international conferences and a provider of professional development on a variety of topics to educators and administrators. Rachel Bear.Rachel Bear is a Senior Program Associate for the National Writing Project (NWP). In addition to her 2 years of experience working in education for the national writing project, she spent 8 years as a High School Language Arts teacher and 2 years as co-director of the Idaho Core Coaches for the Idaho State Department of Education. She has been a teacher-consultant with the Boise State Writing Project since 2007 and has provided professional development on a wide-range of topics for teachers in Idaho and across the nation.
Her work at NWP involves supporting the College, Career, and Community Writers Program (C3WP), a nation-wide professional development program that answers the contemporary call for respectful argumentative discourse. It is a three-pronged program, made up of professional development, formative assessment, and instructional resources that help teachers and students read critically, explore multiple points of view, and finally take a stand on important issues. Adam Fachler. Adam Fachler is the creator of the EMPOWER heuristic. He taught, led grade teams and departments, coached teachers, and served as intern-principal in the Bronx before helping co-create the School in the Square, an inquiry-oriented public middle school in Washington Heights. He has consulted with hundreds of educators and educational leaders across K-12 and in career and technical education settings to reimagine how they teach, learn, and organize their learning environments.