Speakers: Sarah Miller, Mark Letcher and Pamela Mason, National Council of Teachers of English, Standing Committee Against Censorship; Sam LaFrance, The PEN America Foundation
Learn more about educational gag orders and attempts to censor discussion, books, plays, curriculum and learning in schools nationwide. Panelists will share information for those preparing for careers in schools and libraries and offer sources of support for educators dealing with censorship challenges and gag orders. This panel is geared towards current and future educators & other professionals serving youth & families but is open to all TU community members.
April 18, 2023, 5-6pm (Past)
Sarah Miller is the Senior Coordinator of Intellectual Freedom and Book Initiatives at the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). She holds a bachelor's degree in English from Saint Xavier University in Chicago. Sarah is the staff liaison for the Build Your Stack® Committee, the NCTE Children’s Book Awards, and the Standing Committee Against Censorship. Since 2021 she has coordinated the work of the Intellectual Freedom Center, which provides resources and support to educators preparing for or responding to censorship challenges.
Pamela A. 
Mason, EdD is a senior lecturer on education, a Co-Chair of the Literacy and Languages concentration, and director of the Jeanne Chall Reading Lab at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her professional and research interests encompass the role of culturally sustaining pedagogy in promoting literacy achievement, the interaction of text complexity and background knowledge, qualitative and quantitative literacy assessment, and the efficacy of the roles of Reading Specialists and Literacy Coaches. Dr. Mason has extensive experience as a reading/language arts curriculum coordinator, and she also was an elementary school principal, serving in both urban and suburban districts in the Boston area.
Dr. Mason collaborates with colleagues nationally and globally on preparing reading specialist teachers and literacy coaches, developing the capacity of school leaders as literacy advocates, and evaluating school-wide literacy programs.
Dr. Mason is active in the International Literacy Association, serving on the Assessment Task Force and in the National Council of Teachers of English, serving on the Standing Committee Against Censorship. She is also an active member of the Literacy Research Association and served on the Reading Standing Committee of the National Assessment of Educational Progress. She is a past president of the Massachusetts Association of College and University Reading Educators and the Massachusetts Reading Association. Dr. Mason is a member of the Board of Trustees for Cathedral High School (Boston), GrubStreet (a creative writing center), and the WGBH Educational Foundation, as a trustee emerita.
Mark Letcher is an Associate Professor of English Education at Lewis University, where he also directs the English Language Arts Teaching Program. He currently serves as the Executive Director for ALAN, the adolescent literature assembly of NCTE, and also serves on NCTE's Standing Committee Against Censorship.
Sam LaFrance is the program coordinator for free expression and education at PEN America, where she works to protect academic freedom and campus free speech. She has a BA in Political Communication from the George Washington University.
