Creating a Global Media Center

Sedley Abercrombie is the district digital learning and media programs specialist for Davidson County Schools. She is also an NCSLMA executive board member, a contributing blogger for AASL’s Knowledge Quest and an adjunct instructor in the library science program at East Carolina University.

Carina Cordero Brossy is a global education consultant who works with K-12 schools, colleges and overseas immersion programs to integrate cross-cultural strategies into curricula and business models. She is also curator and host of Our Edible Stories, a podcast highlighting how personal stories and cultural identities drive food choices in the multicultural South. Prior to consulting, Carina served as assistant director for curriculum at UNC-Chapel Hill’s World View program. There she coordinated globally focused professional development programs as well educator study visits to Honduras, Costa Rica, India and Russia. Carina has degrees in Spanish and international affairs and speaks Spanish, French and some Mandarin and Russian.

Elizabeth Bucrek is the program manager for Carolina Navigators and helps to provide K-16 teachers and students with global education resources created by Carolina students who have international expertise. She began working in the field of education in 2003. Liz has worked as a secondary French and Spanish teacher, as an instructional coach and as a high school director of the Academy of International Studies. Originally from Michigan, Liz has studied abroad in France, taught English in Spain and traveled throughout the US, Europe, the Caribbean, Latin America and Asia. She earned her bachelor’s degree at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and her master’s degree at N.C. State University. In addition to working at the Center for Global Initiatives, Liz publishes French and Spanish lesson plans online, shares world language and technology resources with teachers on her blog and is a Zumba fitness instructor. She enjoys sharing her passion for global education with teachers and students and is thrilled to be part of Carolina Navigators.

Kathryn Cole is a National Board Certified librarian at Northside Elementary School in Chapel Hill, NC. She received her B.A. in elementary education and her Masters of Library Science from UNC-Chapel Hill. She was a 2016 recipient of the American Library Association’s “I Love My Librarian” award. She believes the library is the heart of a school and is passionate about creating equitable library spaces steeped in joy!

Derek Creason is an educational professional and consultant dedicated to innovation through collaboration. He creates learning technologies, designs innovation spaces, leads instructor workshops and builds programs to drive innovation forward. He is currently the director of the Carolina Center for Educational Excellence where he oversees efforts to explore innovative learning approaches through small and large-scale collaboration between K-12 and post-secondary educators. Derek has a master’s degree in educational technology, innovation and entrepreneurship from UNC-Chapel Hill.

Adam Garry is a former elementary school teacher and is now Dell’s director of global education strategy. He has presented at conferences around the world, including several times for World View, published many articles on technology integration for several education magazines and has a strong following on Twitter. Over the past fifteen years, he has consulted in school districts on school transformation, professional learning, one-to-one, digital curriculum, personalized learning, project-based learning, curriculum and instruction and leadership. He is the author of “Teaching the iGeneration” and “Personalized Learning Through Voice and Choice.”

Kimberly Hirsh, MLS, MAT, is a doctoral student at the School of Information and Library Science at UNC-Chapel Hill. Her research interests include libraries as learning environments, connected learning and how libraries can support youth development. She has a professional background in secondary education as a Latin teacher and school librarian. In addition, she worked for three years as a managing editor at LEARN NC, a K-12 outreach program for the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Education. In this role, she developed new content and managed existing content for the LEARN NC website; provided publicity for the website via social media channels, mailing lists and blogs; and identified and cataloged digital learning objects for findability and usability.

Sandra Hughes-Hassell is a professor in the School of Information and Library Science at UNC-Chapel Hill and project director of Project READY. She is also the immediate past president of the Young Adult Library Services Association. In her current research, she focuses on social justice issues in library services, culturally relevant practice in libraries and diverse youth literature. She has published widely, and presented locally and nationally, on topics related to this project, such as critical race theory, culturally relevant pedagogy and the role of librarians in supporting the literacy needs of African American youth. She co-developed and teaches a diversity course for youth services students at UNC-Chapel Hill. Along with Casey Rawson and Pauletta Bracy, she is co-editor of a forthcoming book titled “Libraries, Literacy and African American Youth: Research and Practice.”

Beatrix Hutton is an education technology assistant for Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools. In this role she also supports the programming at the Carolina Center for Educational Excellence where she was the founder and co-director of the ImagineLab Teen Summer Camp. She was also the co-host of Innovations in Game-Based Learning Webinar Series at UNC-Chapel Hill where she hosted and produced a series of live webinars. Prior to coming to UNC-Chapel Hill for a master of arts in educational innovation, technology and entrepreneurship, Beatrix taught English in Japan, was a teaching assistant in Tulsa, Oklahoma and attended Duke University.

Jonathan Permar is director of social studies teaching, learning and professional development in Guilford County Schools. Jonathan started as an elementary and middle school English teacher in rural Japan. Upon his return, he began teaching high school social studies and working with his district on curriculum development for world and American history curricula and leading professional development. He eventually became a personalized learning facilitator in instructional technology in Guilford County Schools, supporting teachers in creating more student-centered experiences through technology. Now, he has moved back to his content area as the director of social studies, leading the GCS social studies department in their work around the district. He is passionate about providing students with authentic learning experiences that allow them to explore their community, their government and the world. Jonathan holds a bachelor of arts in history from Elon University and an M.B.A. from the Poole College of Management at NC State University.

Casey Rawson is a teaching assistant professor and co-PI and postdoctoral research associate for Project READY at UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Information and Library Science, where she earned her Ph.D. in 2016. Her research focuses on teacher-librarian collaboration (particularly in STEM content areas), education of school librarians and issues of diversity and equity in school librarianship. She was co-PI on the 2011 IMLS grant that funded the Bridge to Literacy summit and has co-authored many publications with Sandra Hughes-Hassell on topics related to this project. She is also co-editor of the forthcoming book “Libraries, Literacy and African American Youth: Research and Practice.” She is an expert on design-based research, holds a MAT and an MSLS degree and has years of curriculum design experience in both K-12 and higher education settings.

Julie Stivers is in her fourth year as the librarian at Mount Vernon Middle School, an alternative public school in Raleigh, NC, where she loves helping students find and devour engaging, reflective literature. She is the recipient of AASL’s 2017 Frances Henne Award and was recognized as a 2018 ALA Emerging Leader. In March 2019 Julie was awarded a 2019 Movers and Shakers award by Library Journal. Her research and professional interests include culturally sustaining pedagogy, inclusive library spaces and finding creative ways to dismantle the traditional literary canon.

Kirill Tolpygo is the librarian for Slavic and East European studies, global studies and linguistics and lecturer of Russian at the department of Germanic and Slavic languages and literatures at UNC-Chapel Hill. Kirill has master’s degrees in linguistics and library science from the University at Buffalo, SUNY. He is an avid student of foreign languages, especially Czech and Hungarian.

More information coming soon!

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