Panelist

Linwood Crawford
Elementary Curriculum Director
Rutherford County Schools

Linwood is a twenty-six year veteran with Rutherford County Schools. He graduated from Gardner-Webb University with B.S. degrees in Elementary and Intermediate Education as well as Masters degrees in Reading and Administration. Additionally he holds an Educational Specialist Degree from Converse College in School Administration.

He taught for sixteen years in Kindergarten, First, and Second Grades. He has been an assistant principal, principal, and serves now as curriculum director. He continues to work closely with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction with K-2 Instruction and Assessment conducting staff development training for State Reading Institutes. In addition he has worked with various counties as advisor and trainer.

Dr. Betty Wells Brown
Associate Professor
UNC at Pembroke

Dr. Brown coordinates the graduate program (Master of Arts in Education) in reading education at UNC Pembroke. In addition, she serves as the vice president in membership for the NC Reading Association. She assesses and trains second year teachers for the PBL Product with an emphasis in multicultural children's literature and diagnosis and remediation. Dr. Brown also conducts workshops in multicultural children's literature.
She has taught grades K-12 in public schools in NH, SC, VA as well as undergraduate and graduate courses at colleges and universities in South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Vermont and Iowa.

Dr. Randy Whitfield
Associate Vice President of Academic and Student Services
Basic Skills Department
North Carolina Community Colleges

Dr. Randy Whitfield has an educational doctorate from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and has held the following positions: community college instructor and coordinator, university professor, educational consultant for Levi Strauss & Co.'s national workplace literacy program, and coordinator and director of Basic Skills programs. She is the co-author of two books: Workplace Job-Specific Skills Programs: the How-to-Do-It Manual (Steck-Vaughn, 1996) and Adult Basic Skills Instructor Training Manual (Appalachian State University, 1990.) Currently, she is the chairperson of the National Adult Education Professional Development Consortium.