Barbara O’Byrne, Director
bobyrne@marshall.edu
304-746-1986
Marshall University Literacy Education Program 100 Angus E. Peyton Drive South Charleston, WV 25303
Barbara O’Byrne is program director of the Literacy Education Program and the Central West Virginia Writing Project at Marshall University. Her professional interests focus on writing and literacy, and in particular on the role of engagement in literacy and learning and multimodal literacy. She is published in numerous national and international journals. An active member of a writing group, she has had stories published in Perigee Publication for the Arts, The Citron Review, and Flash Fiction Magazine. She is currently working on a collection of stories on the theme of the extraordinariness of ordinary lives.
Dr. Isaac Willis Larison
larison@marshall.edu
304-746-2051
Marshall University Literacy Education Program 100 Angus E. Peyton Drive South Charleston, WV 25303
Isaac Willis Larison, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor with the Literacy Education Program, Marshall University in South Charleston, West Virginia. His educational experience includes elementary, middle, and high school classroom teaching. He served as a Fulbright Scholar for one year in Norway and was the director of an international studies program in Denmark for 12 years. He is especially interested in the role children’s literature plays in literacy development and influence of multicultural and cross-cultural perspectives among children and teachers in schools. Dr. Larison has served on local, state, and national committees to promote literacy and children’s literature. He has presented at conferences around the world and is published in state, national, and international journals. His most recent research project examines the use of iPad technology to assist students with writing. He received a fellowship to study at the International Youth Library in Munich, Germany in 2017 and 2019.
Donna Atwood, Program Outreach
wallace74@marshall.edu
Marshall University Literacy Education Program 100 Angus E. Peyton Drive South Charleston, WV 25303
Donna Atwood, MA, Doctoral Student, is an Instructor with the Literacy Education Program, Marshall University in South Charleston, West Virginia. Her educational experience includes teaching in elementary school as a classroom teacher and as a reading specialist. She completed her B.A in Elementary Education and M.A in Reading Education degree at Marshall University. She currently lives in Putnam County with her husband and two children. Her interests are when and how to introduce literacy to children and professional development available to teachers in public and private schools.