2000 - 2002 Research Foundation
Cultivating New Voices Among Scholars of Color

The FELLOWS...

Lena Ampadu, Carmen Martinez, Felisa Love- Research Foundation Project Manager, Tanya Manning, Rosario Carrillo, Yolanda Majors, Valerie Kinloch, Stephanie Carter, Octavio Pimentel, Karen Titsworth, Lisa Roy Davis.  

The Mentors....

Pictured from left to right...(front row) Carol D. Lee, Maria Franquiz, Arnetha Ball, Elizabeth Moje, Eileen Oliver.
Pictured from left to right...(back row) George Hillocks, Jr., Peter Smagorinsky (Director), Dale Jacobs, Felisa Love (Project Manager)

Before they were 2000-2002 CNV Fellows

The NCTE Research Foundation has completed it's pilot program of Cultivating New Voices Among Scholars of Color.  The two year program successfully ended in March 2002.  Read below the experiences of the Fellows and Mentors during their two year participation.

Ampadu, Lena Dr. - When I started as a CNV Fellow, I was in an untenured assistant professor of English position at Towson University. Since becoming a Fellow, I've gained tenure and have been elected president of "College English Association Middle Atlantic Group."

Update: Click here for access to Lena's new books, "Gumbo Yaya: Tapping Cultural Stories to Teach Composition," Composition Studies, vol. 32, no. 1 Spring 2004.  You might want examine another of Lena's publications, "Modeling Orality: African American Rhetorical Practices and the Teaching of Writing," African American Rhetoric(s): Interdisciplinary Perspectives, eds. Elaine Richardson and Ron Jackson.

Carillo, Rosario - Before I was a CNV Fellow, I was a pre-candidate. Since becoming a CNV Fellow, I've  achieved candidacy and plan to finish my dissertation by May 2003. I have also submitted a chapter for a book on migrant education. I have been accepted into the Michigan Teaching Fellow program at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. I have also received the Judith and Howard Sims Medal, a Spencer Mini-Grant and a Gingsberg Center for Community Service & Learning's Student Initiatives Grant, as well as a Rackham Discretionary Fund Grant. Much of my success with these grants and with reaching candidacy has been due to my acceptance into the NCTE CNV Fellowship program, which has guided me well and given me inspiration.

Davis-Roy, Lisa - When I became a CNV Fellow I was a new mother and was in the beginning of my Doctorial Candidacy. I had already started my dissertation and was about ¾ of the way done. Since becoming a Fellow, I started a 10-year track faculty position at North Hampton Community College in Pennsylvania. I taught one semester In this tenured position before I had to move to Texas to support my husband. I have one chapter left in my dissertation. I've published a book chapter, "Catholic Women Writers." (source book) I am currently working on an article, and baby Austin is a year and a half now.

Kinloch, Valerie Dr. - Before I became a CNV Fellow, I was completing tenure of a dissertation fellowship from the Humanities Center at Wayne State University, was in the process of defending my dissertation and receiving the Ph.D. (March 2000), and was finishing 1700 hours of community service with the Michigan Institute of Nonviolence Education for Americorps National Service. I then accepted a tenure-track job in Composition and Rhetoric at the University of Houston-Downtown as an Assistant Professor of English. After becoming a CNV Fellow, I received an Organized Research Grant from the University of Houston-Downtown for a course release. I also received an invitation to be a member of the Commission on Language with NCTE. I published a review article with Jerrie C. Scott (my CNV mentor) in the _Journal of Advanced Composition_. I have authored two articles that are awaiting a fall 2002 publication date and am currently revising other articles. Also, I won third place in the 2001 Miles Davis Poetry Competition.

UPDATE:  Click here for information on Valerie's new co-edited book, Still Seeking an Attitude: Critical Reflections on the Work of June Jordan, (Kinloch & Grebowicz, November 2004)

Majors,  Yolanda Dr. - Before I was a CNV Fellow, I was working on my dissertation entitled, "Shop Talk." Since becoming a Fellow, I've presented in New York at the Research Assembly's Winter Workshop. I've been appointed to serve on the Standing Committee on Research at NCTE, and nominated to become a member of NCRLL, what an honor!

Manning, Tanya Dr.  -  When I entered the CNV program, I was just finishing a wonderful opportunity to work as a research assistant for the National Research Center for English Learning and Achievement.  The strand of our project, headed by Judith Langer, involved researching teachers’ professional lives and exemplary instructional practices.  I worked for CELA for four years from 1996-2000, while simultaneously enrolled in an education  doctoral program.  For the duration of my working with CELA while also completing coursework, I received a fellowship.  As an added blessing to working for CELA, opportunities to present at several conferences for NCTE, IRA, NRC and local organizations have abounded.  Since becoming a fellow, I have also become a high school English teacher.  I am presently completing my dissertation proposal.  In addition to my academic pursuits, I am also trying to contribute to the literary world.  I am a poet, and have written and produced a theatrical production in the tradition of Ntozake Shange’s “for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf.”  I have also completed a manuscript of poetry, and I am presently writing and doing research for my first novel.  Monthly I participate in a local open mike “poetry spot” known affectionately as “Soul Kitchen,” which we have been doing for the past seven years.

Martínez-Roldán, Carmen Dr. - Before I was a CNV Fellow, I had just finished my Ph. D. in Language, Reading, and Culture at The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ and was beginning a two-year fellowship as a Post-doctoral associate at the University of Iowa. Being a CNV Fellow and a post-doc has enabled me to extend my doctoral research and to identify a line of inquiry to pursue further. The CNV Program has offered me support to focus on writing a manuscript on my research entitled "Constructing or Constricting the ZPD? Meaning Making and Identity in Bilingual Literature Discussions," which I am submitting for publication this spring 2002. That manuscript will be the basis for the book I want to write on the same topic. I have presented different aspects of my research at the National Reading Conference, at NCTE conferences, and at local forums during the last two years. Since I have been a Fellow, I began co-chairing Area One of NRC on Children's, Young Adult's and Adult's Literature. Finally, I have accepted a position as Assistant Professor at Arizona State University. The mentoring and support received through the CNV Program definitely played an important role on this achievement.

Titsworth, Karen Cozetta - When I entered into the CNV program as a Fellow, I was a non-traditional doctoral student trying to find my way at the University of Cincinnati after having taught for 11 years in suburban and public school districts in Cincinnati. I was and still am a single mother of an eight-year old daughter (Kayla), who has been blessed with gifts and talents. I was working as a Research Assistant on a three-year literacy project focusing on literacy practices of teachers and children in an urban Appalachian community along with my local mentor and another doctoral student. In addition, I was blessed to receive an AERA/Spencer Pre-Dissertation Fellowship in 1999-2000 and was nominated by my Graduate Chair to become a Holmes Scholar during the 2000-2001 academic year. Since I've been a Fellow, I have been blessed by my mentor, Dale Jacobs and other mentors'/mentees' wisdom and guidance over the past two years. I am currently a doctoral candidate in Literacy Education and plan to conduct dissertation research in the Spring of 2002. Recently, I received an AERA/OERI Dissertation grant for $15,000 to fund this research. I presented at the NCTE Annual Convention in Baltimore, Maryland in 2001. I've accomplished all of this while being a single mother, Vice President of the PTA, local chauffeur for Kayla, and a full-time special education teacher confirming that all things are possible, if you just believe.

Dr. Stephanie Carter – Before I was a CNV Fellow, I was in the process of writing my dissertation proposal. I finished my proposal and successfully passed my oral and written exam. I then begin collecting data for my study entitled “The Possibilities of Silence: African American Female Culture Identity and Secondary Classroom.”  While working on my dissertation, I received a Peabody Dissertation Enhancement Grant. In August 2001, I successfully defended my dissertation. Now that I’ve finished defending my dissertation, I have co-authored a publication in Theory Into Practice, a co-authored book Discourse Analysis and The Study of Classroom Language and Literacy Events, and a couple of articles that are in the revision process. CNV afforded me an opportunity to work with top scholars in the field and provided me access to excellent resources. Currently, I am an Assistant Professor in the Language Education Department, English Education program at the Indiana University, Bloomington.