We are a group of educators from across the state who have been collaborating as a research group to support disciplinary literacy in middle and high schools in South Carolina. Our goal is to help middle and high school educators address literacy and support all learners in their classrooms.
We believe that literacy:
- Is communication
- Requires participants to consume, curate, and create content
- Requires, but is not limited to, reading and writing print text specific to and within the discipline
- Includes digital and/or multimodal in nature and therefore requires participants to utilize a wide range of literacy skills to make sense of various text forms
- Is a social, co-constructed practice
- Is contextualized by an individual’s identity, culture, experience, and prior knowledge
- Is most effectively constructed through authentic spaces and when used for authentic purposes
We believe all educational stakeholders — students, teachers, administrators, parents, community members, and policymakers — bring expertise, experience, and perspectives that enrich our shared understanding of literacy, literacy learning, and literacy instruction.
We believe all adolescents, from striving to accelerated learners, deserve high quality disciplinary instruction that embeds literate practices across all subject areas.
LiD’s Bylaws:
To connect with us, feel free to contact us at hello@literacy6-12.org.
Rachelle Savitz
President
Rachelle S. Savitz is an associate professor of reading/literacy at East Carolina University. She was previously a K-12 literacy coach/interventionist and high school reading teacher. She values working with graduate students and teachers and learning with and from them. She explores the intersections of critical inquiry, culturally sustaining pedagogy, trauma-sensitive practices, and teacher self-efficacy related to disciplinary literacy and equitable literacy materials and curricula. She received the 2019 Association of Literacy Educators and Researcher’s Jerry Johns Promising Researcher Award and the 2018 Early Career Literacy Scholar Award from the American Reading Forum. Dr. Savitz spotlights the necessity of teacher collaborators in her upcoming co-edited book, Teaching the "taboo": Diverse and inclusive literature is the way, with Routledge, where teachers highlight their classroom practices. She emphasizes teacher instruction with over 15 snapshots in her book with Teachers College Press, Trauma-sensitive literacy instruction: Building student resilience in English language arts classrooms. This is an extension of Teaching Hope and Resilience for Students Experiencing Trauma: Creating Safe and Nurturing Classrooms for Learning, coauthored with Drs. Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey.
Wanda Littlejohn
Vice-President
Dr. Wanda Littlejohn is a native of North Augusta, SC, and has 22 years’ experience in the field of education with a background in science. Currently, she is an Instructional Specialist at Carolina High School where she provides professional development for teachers. Her passion is working with educators to provide engaging and equitable learning experiences for students. Additionally, she enjoys spending time with her 15-year-old son and shopping.
Terrie Rathburn
Secretary/Treasurer
Terrie Rathburn teaches mathematics at Carolina High School in Greenville, South Carolina. She draws on her background in curriculum design, disciplinary literacy, and instructional coaching to support student-centered, inquiry-based learning in her classroom. Before returning to the classroom in 2023, Terrie served as a disciplinary literacy coach, math coach, and professional learning facilitator for STEM educators across South Carolina. She holds a B.S. in Mathematics and an M.Ed. in Learning Design and Technology from the University of South Carolina. Terrie believes learning happens when we are cognitively, socially, and emotionally engaged and designs learning with a balance of these modalities to support students as they develop mathematical literacy.
Charlene Aldrich
Board Member
Charlene Aldrich is an educator and content area literacy advocate; her expertise is the ability to incorporate a literacy model of instruction into every content area, with Welding as her latest success! In 2014, she partnered with the College of Charleston and its Office of Professional Development to write, design, and deliver Read to Succeed literacy courses at the graduate level. Charlene shares her life with her husband, grown children, and a dog, PluffMudd. She also dabbles in acrylics as wearable art.
Catheryn Cofield
Board Member
Catheryn Cofield is a first-year teacher serving at Chester Middle School in Chester, SC. She graduated from Anderson University in 2024 with her bachelor’s in Vocal Music Education and is currently serving as both a general music teacher and choir director at her school. She believes musical literacy is a key component of any competent music program and one of the greatest tools that a developing reader can have.
Donna Confere
Board Member
Donna Lynn Confere is a teacher of multilingual learners in the Fort Mill School District in South Carolina. She cares about children and how they learn and the dignity with which school systems treat their families. Dr. Confere is a member of Carolina TESOL and earned her PhD in Literacy, Language, and Culture from Clemson University in 2023. She has supervised university students as they taught English in summer camps in Italy. She also provides English instruction for families in her home. She is interested in research that bridges disciplinary literacy as a means to equity in education.
Denise Liddle
Board Member
Denise is a 17 year middle school teacher. She has taught both science and social studies. Denise and her family moved to South Carolina in 2008 from Michigan, where she earned a Bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan - Flint in secondary education and a Master of Science Education in K-12 Studies. Denise is passionate about teaching students.
Kelli Madkins
Board Member
Kelli Madkins is an eighth grade English Language Arts teacher from the mountains of North Carolina and the 2025 Asheville City Schools Teacher of the Year. With sixteen years of experience spanning grades fourth through eighth, Kelli has served as a classroom teacher and district academic coach. She holds a Master of Arts in Reading and Literacy Education from East Carolina University, and her professional passions include designing cross-curricular resources, coaching educators, and building actionable literacy toolkits.
Kavin Ming
Board Member
Dr. Kavin Ming is a Professor at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, SC. She is currently serving as the Department Chair in the Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy. She teaches undergraduate literacy methods courses and graduate content area literacy and practicum courses. Kavin’s research interests include at-risk student populations, culturally responsive pedagogy, content area literacy instruction, and multisensory teaching of literacy skills.
Maggie Mnayer
Board Member
Margaret Mnayer, Maggie, has spent a total of twenty-two years in education, specializing in English Language Arts; fifteen years of those years have been teaching disciplinary education at the university level. Her most recent experience has been in the Department of Teacher and special Education at Central Michigan University. Maggie was awarded her Ph.D in Curriculum and Teaching from the University of Kansas. Her interests include creating disciplinary literacy units for all content areas.
Vanessa Murphy-Rogers
Board Member
Vanessa L. Murphy-Rogers is an Instructional Coach for Pitt County Schools in Greenville, North Carolina. As a Michigan native who does not like the cold, she loves the warm weather, southern barbecue, and the easy access to both mountains and beaches North Carolina has to offer.
Having spent over a decade in education, Vanessa has taught 8th grade English Language Arts (ELA) and co-taught 6th and 7th grade ELA, Science, and Social Studies. She is committed to equitable teaching and the implementation of culturally sustaining pedagogy. In her current role, she is able to capitalize on her influence by incorporating effective literacy instructional strategies and research based teaching practices across multiple disciplines and grade spans. In addition to her teaching career, Vaness actively collaborates statewide with educational specialists, higher education professionals, and community representatives.
Anna Stuart
Board Member
Ms. Anna Stuart is an 8th-grade science teacher in Lexington, SC. Anna earned her bachelor’s degree in middle-level sciences and her master’s degree in Language and Literacy from the University of South Carolina. As the lead science teacher at her school, she is passionate about creating curiosity in her classroom and helping students see themselves as scientists.
Heather Hall
In Memoriam
On September 3, 2025, Heather lost her life in a funicular accident in Lisbon, Portugal. She was representing the College of Charleston, there to present at a conference. No matter where Heather's career took her, she carried the LiD philosophy with her. Her dedication to her literacy passion will forever have an impact on each of the members of this organization, and thus, on our audience. LiD 6-12 will always be greatful for her commitment to the organization as secretary.
