Stephanie Korteweg is the founder and former director of STARS Book clubs in Waco, TX.  Today she is on the local school board and gives her extra time to supporting national literacy movements. Her work has been transformational in recruiting volunteers from faith communities and beyond.  Her work in impoverished schools has been incredible: schools that ranked at the bottom in literacy became district literacy leaders.

This episode enjoys the wisdom of Ron Fairchild, a well known national leader in literacy. In this wide ranging conversation, Ron shares topics as diverse as the relationship between "the zip code lottery" and literacy, the role a boxing program can have and the need for community wide solutions. Ron Fairchild is the founder of the Smarter Learning Group. Prior to starting the firm, Ron served as CEO of the National Summer Learning Association. The Association's work built on over 15 years of experience and success as the National Center for Summer Learning at Johns Hopkins University, where Fairchild was executive director. He is also Senior Consultant with the Campaign for Grade Level Reading. He is widely recognized as a national authority on how to expand learning opportunities for young people. His frequent appearances in the media include segments on NPR, CNN, C-SPAN, NBC Nightly News, and the CBS Early Show.

Today, TKR talks with Karen Vogelsang, the Executive Director of a formidable literacy organization outside of Memphis in Shelby County. Her enthusiasm for children is only outdone by her keen mind for navigating and succeeding in recruiting an army of reading mentors. Karen is the Executive Director of ARISE2Read. Karen taught elementary school. She holds a Masters in Elementary Education and earned National Board Certification. Karen is the 2015 Tennessee Teacher of the Year. She received fellowships at Harvard’s Project Zero, Gates Foundation, Teach Plus, and Hope Street Group.

Dr Beegle was raised in poverty and illiterate until adulthood. Overcoming staggering odds, and the assistance of some unexpected neighbors, Donna not only escaped the cycles of generational poverty, but has since risen to become one of the world's most sought after authorities on poverty. In today's episode Tony asks Donna the connection between poverty and failing in school, specifically the layered difficulty poor children carry everyday that keeps them from the life-transforming gift of reading.

Some of the best literacy stories are about everyday citizen-neighbors who learn the power of reading and want to help in some small and tangible way. Today, Tony talks to Lucy Martin about her journey to become a reading buddy near her home in Southern California.

On this week's podcast, Tony is joined by Anna Paul, the Director of a less than two year old literacy program based in Clark County, Washington called, Read Northwest. Their slogan is, "Word by Word, Life by Life."

Our first featured national leader, activist and thinker in the movement to transform literacy in America is Mary Cantwell, the co-founder of EnrichedNYC and OnWords. Mary is based in New York and her enthusiasm and effervescence is matched only by her clarity and thoughtfulness. Please join us for this stimulating conversation. Learn more at enrichednyc.com

Roy Chang, a former pastor and lifelong education activist, looked across the greater Seattle area and saw too many schools with struggling students.  His solution:  start School Connect Washington.  Listen to hear his fight for teach every kid to read.

In Jeff Johnson’s small community there was no established “reader buddy” program. Listen to today’s short conversation as Tony and Jeff discuss this fun, fumbling and ultimately successful story of one man’s desire to fight illiteracy in his community.

Jeff Martin, Executive Producer of new documentary, SENTENCED, discusses the crisis of illiteracy in America and his hopes regarding his newest film.