Dr. Cindy Gerwin is passionate about literacy and about building literacy communities full of curious joyful learners. For fourteen years, Cindy has worked to share her passion in her elementary classroom by engaging learners, students and their families, with authentic literacy experiences. Cindy models lifelong learning through literacy by working hard to achieve the following: an ELL endorsement, a Reading Teacher designation, a National Board Certification, serving as Past-President of the Illinois Reading Council (IRC), writing numerous articles including a column in the IRC Journal, and earning a Doctorate of Education in Literacy at Judson University. Cindy has traveled both nationally and internationally to share her passion for literacy learning. Her interests include the affective domain of reading, inclusive multicultural and multimodal literacy, anti-bias and anti-racist education, and social equity and justice. Cindy builds upon current research and theory to provide practical, realistic applications in today’s classrooms. You can follow her on Twitter @cggerwin