Paula Egelson, Ed.D. - Center Co-Director
Dr. Paula Egelson, Co-Director of the Center of Excellence for the Advancement of New Literacies in Middle Grades, has worked as a community organizer, a K-8 classroom teacher, and a reading specialist. For 15 years she worked as school improvement and literacy administrator at a federally-funded educational lab serving six southeastern states. Today, besides her New Literacy work, she is the director of the Center for Partnerships to Improve Education at the College of Charleston. The Center works collaboratively with schools in the Charleston area to improve student outcomes. Paula's areas of research include school reform, literacy, and formative student assessment.
Mary Provost, Ed.D. - Center Co-Director
Dr. Mary C. Provost is Co-Director of the Center of Excellence for the Advancement of New Literacies in Middle Grades and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Foundations, Secondary and Special Education at the College of Charleston. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in reading and language arts for students with disabilities, characteristics of individuals with mental disabilities, and instructional procedures for students with mild to severe and multiple disabilities. Dr. Provost's research interests include literacy strategies and programs for students with disabilities and response to intervention, scientifically based research practices/interventions and action research as they pertain to professional development for practicing educators.
Emily Skinner, Ed.D. - Director of Professional Development
Emily N. Skinner is an assistant professor of literacy in the Department of Early Childhood, Elementary and Middle Grades Education in the School of Education at the College of Charleston. She teaches undergraduate and graduate literacy courses using a sociocultural lens to inform approaching current research-based "best practices" so that they draw upon students' new literacies. As the director of professional development for the Center for the Advancement of New Literacies in Middle Grades, Emily develops and models new literacies curriculum and pedagogy for participating media specialists and language arts, social studies, and special education teachers. Emily also serve as a principle investigator, investigating how middle grades educators and students conceptualize and utilize out-of-school literacies to improve literacy engagement and performance in language arts and social studies. Emily may be contacted at skinnere@cofc.edu.
Margaret Hagood, Ph.D. - Director of Research
Margaret C. Hagood is an assistant professor in the Department of Early Childhood, Elementary, and Middle Grades in the School of Education at the College of Charleston. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in early childhood, elementary, and middle grade literacies, focusing on sociocultural and poststructural theories relevant to new literacies. She is the primary researcher for the Center of the Advancement of New Literacies in Middle Grades, studying how middle grades educators and students understand new literacies and utilize out-of-school literacies to improve their literacy performance in teaching and learning in in-school settings. She may be contacted at College of Charleston, School of Education, 86 Wentworth Street, Charleston, SC 29464. Her email address is hagoodm@cofc.edu.
