Literacy Lab Announces Inaugural Fellowship Award Winners
W&M Reading Specialists Kristin Conradi Smith '99 (left) with Ellen Frackelton, M.A.Ed. ’19 (center) and Clinical Instructor Tamara Williams (right).
The William & Mary School of Education Literacy Lab is pleased to announce the inaugural cohort of Translating Research Into Practice (TRIP) Fellows. Eight Virginia teachers have been selected from a competitive pool of candidates, each representing a different school division in the Commonwealth. The cohort includes classroom teachers, reading specialists, literacy coaches, and assessment and intervention specialists. The TRIP Fellowship program focuses on building teachers’ knowledge of empirical research. Fellows then use this knowledge to translate cutting-edge scholarship into practical how-to guides for teachers, making a lasting impact on literacy education.
"We've created these fellowships to leverage teacher expertise and to create a platform where teachers nationwide can access one-pagers that translate recent research in a digestible way for others,” says Kristin Conradi Smith '99, associate professor of reading education and co-founder of the Literacy Lab. 
The 2024 TRIP Fellows will spend the next year studying the latest research on reading instruction and translating their findings into short, accessible guides for widespread distribution throughout the United States. Fellows will be trained in how to analyze research and will be supported by the W&M School of Education Literacy Lab as well as an advisory board of nationally renowned literary scholars. Each fellow will receive a $1,500 award for the one-year commitment and create four guides, for 32 literacy guides produced by the end of the year. Through this initiative, the W&M School of Education Literacy Lab will create a library of resources available for years to come.
“Educators today are encouraged to leverage best practices and research-driven instructional guidance. Navigating such a vast landscape can be an ongoing challenge,” says 2024 TRIP Fellow Stephanie Pressley. “This fellowship empowers us to delve into the research and translate it into clear insights that will support educators in our most critical work.”
The 2024 TRIP Fellows include:
Megan Crowe, Reading Interventionist, Richmond City Schools
Kimberly Ellis M.A.Ed. '23, Elementary Reading Specialist, Virginia Beach Schools
Julia Koehler, Early Literacy and Elementary Reading Assessment and Intervention Specialist, Loudon County Schools
Adele LaFontaine, Elementary Reading Specialist, Charlottesville City Schools
Stephanie Pressley, Middle School Reading Specialist, York County Schools
Eli Tinkelman, Elementary Reading Specialist, Fairfax County Schools
Julie Vinson, High School English Teacher & Reading Specialist, Albemarle County Schools
Emma Wise '21, M.A.Ed. '22, Elementary Teacher Williamsburg-James City Schools
Read more in the Virginian-Pilot: W&M Literacy Lab fellowship aims to create training guides ‘by teachers, for teachers’
