Statewide Office

Shervaughnna Anderson-Byrd

Statewide Office Executive Director

sandersonbyrd@ucsd.edu

Shervaughnna Anderson-Byrd serves as the CRLP Executive Director for the Statewide office effective June 2023. 

I have been leading and learning in CRLP since 1998. CRLP is an organization that has allowed me continuously to grow as a professional educator. We have the unique opportunity in this project to address all literacy needs including critical literacy and social justice. It is also the collegial environment that exists within our local and statewide projects that cannot be dismissed, the mentors and relationships I have made over the years are priceless. 

Clarissa White

Program/Financial Manager

c3white@ucsd.edu

Clarissa is the Program and Logistics Manager that runs the day-to-day administrative logistics for the California Reading and Literature Project Statewide Office and Regional San Diego Office. She has been with the California Reading and Literature Project since November 2018, but with UC San Diego since 2005. Clarissa’s worked in both academic affairs and student affairs along side staff, faculty, undergraduates and graduates. She finds her career to be the most rewarding with being able to work along side K-14 educators.

Being part of the California Reading and Literature Project is EVERYTHING! There is never a day where I do not find even more appreciation to all the educators and partners that we collaborate with. Being with CRLP opened my eyes to the realization that I share the same passion and dedication towards wanting to be some sort of a resource tool in helping to advance literacy for students not just in my direct region but in the state. It has been really inspiring to visit classrooms and assist my directors with professional devlopement workshops. Being able to just listen to the various stories from educators and parents about how their students have been able to benefit from the many learning opportunities that the CRLP offers is out of this world! I really appreciate my position and role that I have with the CRLP. 

Gail Bruce

Director, CSU Sacramento

George Ellis

Director, UC Berkeley

Being part of the California Reading and Literature Project means belonging to a larger community of dynamic teacher leaders and university faculty who share the same passion and dedication towards advancing literacy for all students in our state. I have been with the project for almost two decades now, and am still inspired by the quality and depth of the learning opportunities that CRLP offers to our community of educators statewide.  I hope to inspire our current and future generations of teachers to find the same camaraderie, wisdom, and motivation among our statewide network of teacher leaders that originally brought me to become part of the CRLP learning community.

TBD - CRLP Fresno State, Regional Director

Alison McCormick

Director, California Lutheran University

It’s wonderful to be part of such an esteemed project. As a teacher and an administrator I have had the good fortune to have been on the receiving end of many of CRLP’s signature programs. These programs have helped me and so many of my colleagues improve our classroom practices, advance literacy for our students, and continue our learning journey as educators. As Director of region 8, I look forward to continuing the important work of CRLP’s mission to “provide high-quality, standards-aligned professional development in reading and language instruction to ensure that every California K-12 student achieves the highest standards of academic performance.

Shervaughnna Anderson-Byrd

Interim Director, University of California, Los Angeles

Gina Chavez

Director, Loyola Marymount University

When I was a novice teacher, I was looking for a network of teachers outside my district that I could collaborate with and discuss best practices for instructing English Language Learners. I found CRLP over 20 years ago and have never left. CRLP has always provided the most current and relevant professional development that I could find. The motto has always resonated with me: Teachers as Learners, Teachers as Leaders. Advancing literacy for ALL students in California.

Robyn Lee-Gieseffi

Co-Director, UC Irvine

I am grateful to have been a part of CRLP since 2002 for both the professional relationships and learning. Think back to your favorite teacher, the one who accepted you, pushed you to be better, and made you believe that you could. CRLP is one of my beloved teachers and a big section of my “favorite teacher” pie chart. Yes, I have learned to apply countless concrete literacy planning and teaching skills from CRLP signature programs, CRLP teacher leaders, and other CRLP educator partners. Just as importantly, though, this community has consistently modeled the mindset that learning is always possible and that collaboration provides the new perspective we need to move forward. Many things have changed in the years since I attended my first CRLP institute and was welcomed into the CRLP community. What has never wavered though, is CRLP’s commitment to literacy for all students and the power of teachers.

Linda Palomino

Co-Director, UC Irvine

My first encounter with CRLP was in 2002, as a teacher attending a professional learning institute. That institute provided me with instructional strategies that I needed to engage my students who were language learners and I was one hundred percent on board. As I continued to have more opportunities to interact with the CRLP community, what drew me in was the clear mission for equity and collegiality. Twenty years have passed, and I continue to be grateful to be a part of CRLP as a co-director for the UCI/Orange County region.

Lidia Sánchez

Co-Director, UC Irvine

I have 19 years of teaching experience in grades K-8, including English medium and dual immersion settings, as an academic interventionist, classroom teacher and instructional coach. I first worked with CRLP in 2009 when I received training in one of their signature programs while in the classroom. As a coach, several years later, I received training and provided follow up support to several sites in the SEBT Program, and I also participated in the Admin PLC and Teacher Leader Invitational. Now, in this new role as a co-director, it is a dream-come-true to work full-time with an organization that sees literacy as I do: a civil right for all, a vehicle for self-actualization, and a way to connect to the lives and experiences of others near and far.

Fawn Nielsen

Co-Director, Imperial County Office of Education

Abel Juarez

Co-Director, Imperial County Office of Education

Sarah Peterson

Co-Director, Regional Office at UC San Diego

I'm proud to make the CRLP my professional home because it is a community that uplifts and empowers. It's where I, and our Teacher Leadership corps, engage with the most cutting-edge pedagogy, educational research, and application. This melding of best practices and community-based learning/doing is what makes the CRLP truly unique. Together, we lean into our vision statement: "Teachers as Learners and Leaders: Advancing Literacy for all Students in California".

Betsy Hall

Co-Director, Regional Office at UC San Diego

Fortunately for me and for my subsequent students, I was introduced to CRLP at the relative beginning of my teaching career. Through my work and training as a RESULTS teacher leader, I learned how to teach and assess the foundational skills. I read and learned about working with multilingual learners and put that learning into practice with my students. The joy in being part of a shared community of passionate, dedicated, research-reading, equity minded, literacy-loving teachers has inspired and sustained me throughout my long career. CRLP has shaped who I am as a teacher and I will forever be grateful for that.