An internationally-known speaker, workshop leader, and consultant, Susan Zimmermann is coauthor of educational bestsellers Mosaic of Thought (1997 and 2007 2nd edition), 7 Keys to Comprehension, and Comprehension Going Forward (2011), books that are changing the way reading is taught in classrooms throughout America. She cofounded and served as the Executive Director of the Denver-based Public Education and Business Coalition, an organization that has spearheaded ground-breaking comprehension work. During her time there, she initiated numerous programs to improve the quality of public schools, including the Reading Project, which provides many of the examples in Mosaic of Thought and 7… Keys. Susan is also the author of Keeping Katherine; Writing to Heal the Soul, winner of the Colorado Book Award; and Grief Dancers, finalist for the Colorado Book Award and winner of the Exceptional Parent symbol of excellence for its "profound contribution to human understanding and dignity." These wise and inspiring books grew out of Susan's personal experience raising her profoundly handicapped daughter Katherine who had Rett syndrome. Currently a full-time speaker, writer, and education consultant, Susan has given hundreds of workshops, keynotes, and summer institutes in nearly every state and throughout Canada. She has worked with international schools in Mexico, the Philippines, Romania, Japan, Vietnam, and Indonesia. Visit her Heinemann Speakers page for more information. A lover of the wilderness and believer in the transformative power of the outdoors, she has been a trustee of the Colorado Outward Bound School and served as the board chair of The Women's Wilderness Institute, an organization that provides wilderness learning experiences for adolescent girls and women. Susan is a graduate of Yale Law School and mother of four. She lives in the foothills west of Denver. For more information on Susan Zimmermann visit her Web site at www.susanzimmermann.com.
DEBBIE S. MILLER is an award-winning author of a dozen children's books and seven natural history books for adults. Her books have received awards from the National Science Teachers Association, the Children's Book Council, the John Burroughs Association, the International Reading Association, and the American Library Association. She lives in San Francisco, CA.PATRICK J. ENDRES is one of the Alaska's most prominently published nature photographers. His work has appeared in National Wildlife, USA Today, Time, Sierra, Natural History, Audubon, The Washington Post, Newsweek, National Geographic Explorer, Outside, and numerous other publications and calendars. He lives in Fairbanks, AK.a
Samantha Bennett is the author or coauthor of four Heinemann resources: "Kids with Grit" and "Adolescent Reading RX," courses on the Heinemann Digital Campus; Comprehension Going Forward; and That Workshop Book. Sam is the former instructional coach at the Rocky Mountain School of Expeditionary Learning. Previously she was a staff developer with the Denver-based Public Education and Business Coalition, a middle school social studies teacher, a curriculum-technology integration specialist, a district literacy specialist, an adjunct professor at the University of Colorado at Denver, and lab-facilitator for Cris Tovani. She works closely with teachers at her school and across the country to… help them tap into the energy to teach and learn. Sam is branching into systems-level work and helping districts set up a variety of coaching and professional development structures to support teachers, including the Lab Model pioneered by the PEBC. Sam is currently researching and writing about giving students access to power in the world through the creation of meaningful work in school. She gets her energy from her husband Maurice and their three sons - Charlie, Theo, and Augie.
Leslie Blauman has been teaching reading and literacy in the Colorado public schools for over 30 years. Leslie's classroom is a working model for child/staff development in reading, writing, and critical thinking. Partnering with the Denver-based Public Education and Business Coalition (PEBC), her classroom is frequently the subject of professional workshops, classroom reading enhancement films, and education journals.nbsp; While she works with teachers and students in a majority of the states and internationally as a consultant, her heart is in the classroom and she brings this to both her writing and her consulting. nbsp;She speaks regularly at teacher/literacy conferences and… workshops.nbsp;