Say hello to our newest Board member, Rebecca Lorimer Leonard, who brings a wealth of experience and enthusiasm to the school. Rebecca is an Associate Professor in the English Department and Director of the Writing Program at UMass Amherst. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on language diversity, literacy studies, and research methods and guided some of her students in working with ILI on our MA driving curriculum, tailored to the needs of immigrants and refugees.
Rebecca has published broadly, including in her book Writing on the Move: Migrant Women and the Value of Literacy, which won the 2019 Outstanding Book Award from the Conference on College Composition and Communication. In 2017, she received an Outstanding Teaching Award from the College of Humanities and Fine Arts at UMass Amherst.
Rebecca holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, an MA from San Francisco State University, and a BA from the University of Southern California. You can read more about her work at her website.