Governor Appoints HSU Educator to Early Childhood Intervention Advisory Committee

February 18, 2014 JANLYN THAXTON

Texas Governor Rick Perry appointed Dr. Emily Dean, assistant professor of education and director of the Hardin-Simmons University Houston-Lantrip Center for Literacy and Learning, to the Early Childhood Intervention Advisory Committee. The committee serves Texas families who have infants and toddlers with disabilities or developmental delays.

The Houston-Lantrip Center for Literacy and Learning, which Dean heads, focuses on promoting awareness of and aiding in the understanding of dyslexia in struggling readers to teachers and parents. The center serves as the Big Country’s primary resource center for parents, teachers-in-training, public school employees, and university faculty and staff members.

The center hosts seminars and workshops scheduled throughout the year to train and support adults who work directly with students who have difficulty with learning to read and write.

Dean earned a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction from Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, in 2007. She received a Master of Education degree in curriculum and instruction with a specialization in reading from Texas A&M University in 2002, and she graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Interdisciplinary Studies with an emphasis in Early Childhood Education from Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas, 1997.

She has taught in public schools in central and east Texas. She holds Texas teaching certificates as a general education classroom teacher and as a reading specialist. Dean currently teaches HSU courses in beginning literacy and classroom organization of reading instruction.

She is a board member of the Dallas International Dyslexia Association, a member of the International Reading Association, and a member of the National Association for the Education of Young Children. She is also board president of the Alliance for Women and Children, education committee chair of Leadership Abilene, and a former volunteer coach. Additionally, she trains dyslexia interventionists and serves as a community resource on dyslexia and related reading difficulties.

Dean will serve on the committee with Harvey Salinas, Corpus Christie, Texas, a workforce development specialist for Serco of Texas; Sarah Abrahams, Austin, Texas, director of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission Office of Health Coordination and Consumer Services; Terrie Breeden, Wimberley, Texas, program specialist and Section 619 coordinator for the Texas Education Agency; Katrina Daniel, Austin, associate commissioner in the Texas Department of Insurance Life, Accident and Health Department; Jenny Hinson, Cedar Park, Texas, division administrator for permanency for the Department of Family and Protective Services; Barbara Knighton, Spring, Texas, community advocate for children with developmental disabilities; Rumisha Rice, Houston, Texas, former American Sign Language instructor at Kingwood Language; Patricia Rosenlund, Mission, Texas, executive director of Easter Seals Rio Grande Valley; Lynn Sullivan, Fort Worth, Texas, educational consultant for the Region XI Education Service Center Preschool Programs for Children with Disabilities; Laura J. Warren, Austin, executive director of Texas Parent to Parent.

Dean’s term with the Early Childhood Intervention Advisory Committee expires February 1, 2019.

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