1. Tell us about your journey to becoming NCSS President …from joining NCSS to today!

I knew about NCSS when I first became a teacher, but I don’t think I officially became a member until my 4th or 5th year of teaching. I started teaching in Mississippi but moved to Dallas to teach in 1997. While attending the Dallas New Teacher Orientation, I approached a table for the Dallas Council for the Social Studies and met Sue Blanchette and she got me to join the Dallas Council. Through my involvement in the Dallas and the Texas Councils, I learned the importance in becoming involved in education beyond just my classroom walls. Outside of attending NCSS conferences, I really didn’t think about the leadership opportunities in NCSS. In 2009, I was living and working in Maryland when Sue Blanchette called. She was the Vice President of NCSS and asked me to serve as Co-Chair for the 2011 Washington DC Conference. I saw a different side of NCSS and saw the various opportunities in NCSS for involvement and leadership. I joined some communities, served in the House of Delegates a couple of times, and quietly enjoyed my experiences with NCSS, but then Sue called again and urged me to run for the NCSS Board of Directors. I lost the first time but ran again and was elected. I served two terms on the Board before Sue and Peggy Altoff, another NCSS former president, encouraged me to run for Vice President. Now, four years after deciding to throw my hat in the ring, I am so humbled to be where I am. I look at past presidents Sue Blanchette, India Meissel, Tina Heafner, and Peggy Altoff and can’t believe that I am walking in their footsteps.

2. Tell us about your goals for your presidency.

When I ran for Vice President my goals were centered around enhancing our publications and creating a response team to be ready to issue statements when something arose, but that was in 2019. So much has changed since then. Our profession, content area, and organization are under attack by those who do not know who we are. One of my first goals is to help social studies educators seize back the narrative of what happens in social studies classrooms. We have allowed others to hijack our work for political gain and we have to take back our story. We have to tell the story of what happens in social studies classrooms. My other goals include to do a deep reflection on how we, as social studied educators and as an organization, define ourselves. Is the definition of social studies still relevant and inclusive? Are NCSS standards withstanding the test of time? Now that the C3 Framework has been around for almost a decade, has the Framework helped states write powerful social studies standards? Do they need to be tweaked? These are all important questions as other organizations are trying to answer these questions for us and we have to seize the moment. If we want to control our own narrative, we need to make sure we know what we want this narrative to be.  

3. You just mentioned seizing the narrative of social studies. How does this relate to this year’s Summer Leadership Institute: Navigating the Political Landscape of Teaching Social Studies!? Why should NCSS members attend SLI this year?

Seizing the narrative and navigating the political landscape of teaching social studies goes hand in hand. As we navigate the political landscape, we have to seize the narrative. During SLI this year, educators will have an opportunity to learn more about the challenges that we face and to work together to plan how we can seize the narrative. Over the course of a two days, we will learn from Dr. Susan Eckes on just what rights we do and do not have as social studies educators. Dr. Eckes has been speaking to administrators and science teachers about the political climate and she is excited to branch into social studies. We will also hear from leaders in other organizations about how they are navigating social studies and will hear from a district leader on their thoughts on how educators should approach the current attacks on our profession and subject. We will have several breakout sessions where attendees can process what they learned and come up with concrete next steps for their own classrooms, schools, and maybe even district or state level involvement. This is going to be a very powerful conversation and I hope as many members as possible can attend. Did I mention that with it being virtual again this year that it is free?

4. So SLI is virtual, but it’s the first time we’ll be back in person for our Annual Conference since 2019. What are you looking forward to the most as co-chair of the 102nd NCSS Annual Conference: Revolutionary! Ideas and Actions Change the World?

During the pandemic, we have learned that it is possible to transform how we communicate and learn, but we also learned that people still need the human touch. I am so excited about being back in person. I am practicing saying, “we’re baaaaaack.” Philadelphia is an incredible city for social studies and I know that our members will be so excited to be able to come together to learn from each other and to reconnect. Zoom can only do so much!

We have some great things planned for Philadelphia, including our first in-person social studies educator TED TALKS, an African American History strand, and an expanded focus on cross-disciplinary opportunities. We expanded the number of elementary education, pre-service, and world history sessions this year. Over 50 sessions focus on our subtheme of teaching civil discourse and building critical media literacy. We are working hard to make this conference address the current challenges that we as educators have as well as embrace the opportunity to learn and interact with each other in person.

5. Any suggestions for new and seasoned NCSS members?

My main suggestion is to join an NCSS community. I wish I had known about them earlier. Our communities are so powerful and have so much potential. One of our strongest communities is the Psychology Community. If you are a new psychology teacher, the Psychology Community wraps their hands around you and helps with curriculum, lesson development, and building content knowledge related to psychology. Other communities offer similar support or have the capacity to do so. I learned about communities way too late but I am so glad that I finally made the connection to so many of them. It is never too early or too late to join or create an NCSS community.