Leah Zuidema Elected Vice President of NCTE
June 7, 2017
Zuidema Will Take Office during Annual Convention in St. Louis
NCTE is pleased to announce the election of Leah Zuidema to the position of Vice President.
“NCTE has inspired, equipped, and energized me across every role and context, and I am eager to give back to my professional home and family,” Zuidema says. “I love NCTE for who we are, and for who we have the potential to be. For 20 years, I have listened, learning where we have come from, what we value, what we aspire to.”
Zuidema serves as associate provost, dean for curriculum & instruction, and professor of English at Dordt College, Iowa. She began her passion for the profession as a high school English teacher and has dedicated her career to the field as an instructor of composition, technical writing, literature, and English teacher education. Zuidema’s commitment to the Council is evident in her many roles, including those with the CEE Executive Committee, CEE Leadership & Policy Summit, and CCCC Outstanding Dissertation Award in Technical Communication Committee. She has served in leadership roles for NCTE affiliates in Iowa and Michigan. Zuidema is passionate about supporting teachers as writers and is cofounder of and was a coeditor for the peer-reviewed blog: Teachers, Profs, Parents: Writers Who Care. She has also written for several journals and recently coauthored Coaching Teacher-Writers: Practical Steps to Nurture Professional Writing.
“Leah’s belief in the potential of NCTE is coming at a critical time in the evolution of the organization. Her desire to see us united and active and connected could not be coming at a better time both for the Council and for its position within our current times. Her deep work in elevating teacher voice is perfectly aligned with our work moving forward,” said Executive Director Emily Kirkpatrick.
Recent NCTE materials in which Zuidema has played a role include:
- Cofounder/editor, Teachers, Profs, Parents: Writers Who Care
- Coeditor, English Journal column “Professional Writing in the English Classroom”
- “Forum: Teacher Writers: Then, Now, and Next” (Research in the Teaching of English, November 2014) with Anne Elrod Whitney, Troy Hicks, James E. Fredricksen, and Robert P. Yagelski
Zuidema will take office as Vice President during the NCTE Annual Convention in St. Louis, Missouri, in November 2017. She will join the presidential team which currently includes Susan Houser, Joceyln Chadwick, Franki Sibberson, and Doug Hesse.
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The National Council of Teachers of English promotes the development of literacy for all people so they may achieve full participation in society. We do this by learning from and providing support to teachers of English and the related arts and sciences of language. NCTE is the nation’s most comprehensive literacy organization, supporting teachers across the preK–college spectrum. Through the expertise of its members, NCTE has served at the forefront of every major improvement in the teaching and learning of English and the language arts since 1911. For more information, please visit http://www.ncte.org.
For Immediate Release:
Contact Jenna Fournel at 703.599.5749 or jfournel@ncte.org