About Us
The Reading League North Carolina
The Reading League North Carolina (TRL-NC) is a statewide nonprofit organization.
Our mission is to advance the awareness, understanding, and use of evidence-aligned reading instruction across North Carolina, by creating a community of statewide stakeholders invested in ensuring all children receive equitable literacy instruction.
Our vision is that every child in North Carolina will become a proficient reader.
Belief Statements:
- We believe all children can learn to read.
- We believe all teachers can learn to teach children to read.
- We believe adult volunteers can support teachers and children in their literacy efforts.
- We believe working collaboratively supports a shared mission.
- We believe in creating safe environments for learning.
Meet Our Board
TRL-NC 2024 Board
Meet Linda Rhyne
Linda Rhyne moved to Charlotte in 2006 to join Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools as a teacher. She served as a reading, fourth grade, and first grade teacher before moving into leadership as an elementary literacy facilitator. She then went on to serve in district roles supporting instruction in over 29 schools K-12. Linda was part of the committee that developed the CMS Reading Institute, facilitating online learning grounded in evidence-based reading practices aligned with district implemented curriculum. After 15 years with CMS, Linda started consulting independently through Linda Rhyne Consulting. She is LETRS and Orton-Gillingham (IMSE) trained. Linda lives in Charlotte, NC with her husband Malcolm and sons Shields and Maverick. Linda serves as the inaugural President of The Reading League North Carolina.
Meet Laura Freeman
Meet Monica Campbell
Monica Campbell is a professor at Lenoir-Rhyne University and serves as the Chair of the School of Education, Executive Director of the Lenoir-Rhyne Literacy Center, and instructor of the foundations of reading courses. She has a Ph.D. in Special Education from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. During her doctoral program, she coauthored the Early Reading Tutor, a reading intervention curriculum published by SRA. Before becoming a professor, she spent six years as a special educator in an elementary school in Catawba County, teaching students with mild to moderate exceptionalities. She is a certified Orton-Gillingham practitioner and is Past-Chair of the Patrick Beaver Learning Resource Center, which serves families of children with dyslexia, learning disabilities, and ADHD.
Meet Lindsay Lambertson
After graduating from Virginia Tech, Lindsay Lambertson moved to Charlotte, NC to begin her career in financial services. Lindsay spent her first two years working as a consultant implementing financial services software and then joined Bank of America supporting several different divisions within the Commercial and Enterprise Risk Space. After having her three children, she went back to work as a Vice President in a local boutique investment bank. Lindsay resides in Charlotte, NC with her family and serves as the Treasurer of The Reading League North Carolina.
Meet Kim Collins
Kim Collins has been working in the field of education for more than 28 years. She has a Master of Education in Literacy and certification as a K-12 Reading Specialist, as well as a Structured Literacy Dyslexia Specialist certification from the International Dyslexia Association. Kim’s experience in education at the school level includes work as a classroom teacher and reading specialist. At the state level, she served as an Implementation Specialist and worked with school districts to implement a statewide initiative. Kim currently serves as IMSE’s Director of Academics. In addition, as a Level 5 IMSE OG Master Instructor, she trains teachers across the country in IMSE’s OG methodology. Kim lives in Salisbury, NC. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her husband, two sons, and grandson.
Meet Stacey Crowley
Stacey, the owner of Learning Tree Literacy, is a dually certified speech language pathologist and literacy specialist with 23 years of experience teaching communication, literacy and social emotional learning skills to youth in public and private schools. Her dual roles coupled with advanced training in the Orton-Gillingham Approach to multisensory structured language education enable her to specialize in comprehensive treatment for students with language-based learning differences. Her current work combines her fields of expertise with neuroscience, mindfulness and nonviolent communication to teach restorative practices to families and youth using her narrative-based approach called SHARE. Stacey is passionate about teaching communication practices for healthy relationships and nurturing leadership from the inside out for learners of all ages. As a Search Inside Yourself Certified Teacher, Stacey facilitates adult mindfulness-based emotional intelligence programs that help participants discover how to lead their lives, teams and classrooms with clarity, connection and compassion.
Meet Sean Lindsey
Sean Lindsey is based in Charlotte, North Carolina, and brings 9 years of experience in education. Sean has a Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education and Spanish, and a Master’s Degree in K-12 Literacy from Queens University of Charlotte. He has served as an elementary school teacher, a Blended Learning Instructional Coach, and a Multi-Classroom Leader within his Title 1 school building. He also served in multiple leadership capacities within his district. Before joining Reading Horizons, he worked as an Instructional Coach for the North Carolina New Teacher Support Program with the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. There he collaborated with beginning teacher programs at Charlotte-area charter schools where he led professional development and transformational coaching experiences for teachers in K-12 classrooms. Sean is passionate about empowering teachers by giving them the tools and strategies they need to ensure they can provide effective instruction for their students.
Meet Amy Rhyne
Prior to administration, she served as an Instructional Coach and elementary school teacher at various Title I Schools. She received her undergraduate degree in Elementary Education from Appalachian State University, Master’s degree in K-12 School Administration from Gardner-Webb University, Educational Specialist degree at Appalachian State University and participated in Appalachian State University’s Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership. Additionally, Mrs. Rhyne served as the 2017-18 NC Southwest Regional Principal of the Year and co-authored a book for practicing educators entitled, How is that BEST for KIDS? Shifting School Culture with Personalized Learning. She currently serves as a board member on ther NC Partnership for Children.
Meet Dr. Kathleen Castillo-Clark
Dr. Kathleen Castillo-Clark is a Senior Program Director with the national nonprofit, Deans for Impact. Previously she served as the Elementary Education Coordinator and Assistant Professor of education at Campbell University. She earned her Ed.D in Curriculum & Instruction from Loyola University Chicago where she served as an adjunct instructor in the School of Education. She received a master’s degree in Education, Language & Literacy from Harvard Graduate School of Education and holds a B.A in Elementary Education & Romance Languages from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Castillo-Clark has experience teaching at the elementary school level and was awarded the First Year Teacher of Year award for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools in North Carolina. She is a National Board-Certified Teacher in Early and Middle Childhood Literacy: Reading/Language Arts. She served as an appointed member of the North Carolina Independent Colleges & Universities Science of Reading Task Force. Currently, she lives in Chapel Hill, NC with her husband Scott and two daughters Collins and Hazel.
Meet Alesa Falcone
Alesa Falcone holds an undergraduate degree in Psychology from The University of Rochester. After graduation, she and her now husband moved to Charlotte, where she taught 4th, 5th, and 6th grade math for two years. She quickly became interested in literacy development and switched to teaching the primary grades (kindergarten and first) after that. Alesa completed LETRS training with North Carolina’s first cohort and finished the MAT in Elementary Education through UNC Charlotte the same year. She has had the opportunity to present about best practices in literacy instruction at the Fresh Take conference in Davidson (2023 and 2024), the Mebane Literacy Summit (2023 and 2024), and North Carolina Association for Public Charter School’s annual conference (2023 and 2024). Alesa currently teaches kindergarten at Socrates Academy in Matthews.
Meet Dr. Alicia Stewart
Dr. Alicia A. Stewart is an Assistant Professor in the Reading and Elementary Education Department at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Prior to her time at UNC Charlotte, she worked as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Special Education and Interventions at Central Connecticut State University. Dr. Stewart earned her Ph.D. in special education at the University of Texas at Austin, studying effective reading instruction for striving readers. Her research focuses on effective reading instruction for students with behaviors that interfere with learning, specifically students with high levels of inattention. In addition, she is interested in identifying ways to support pre-service and in-service teachers in developing the skills needed to implement effective reading practices across content areas with the goal of improving students’ reading comprehension. Dr. Stewart has authored and co-authored numerous publications concerning effective reading instruction, many of which report findings from experimental studies in which she served on the research team as a project director, co-primary investigator, or primary investigator. Prior to her time in higher education, she taught middle and high school students in California as a special education teacher.
Meet Courtney Morgan
Courtney Morgan spent 19 years in the K-12 public education setting, as a National Board certified elementary teacher and Multilingual Learner Specialist. She is currently preparing future teachers as Assistant Professor of Teacher Education and Elementary Program Coordinator at Brevard College. Courtney is founder of The All-Access Classroom, LLC, which provides professional learning to equip teachers with equitable practices for multilingual learners. Courtney lives with her husband and golden retriever, Lucy, in the mountains of Brevard, NC, outside of Asheville.
Meet Ashton Venters
Born and raised in Pitt County, Ashton Venters has served the students and teachers of Pitt County for 13 years. After graduating from East Carolina University in 2011 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education Ashton served as a first grade teacher then later a fourth grade teacher. While teaching first grade she discovered the struggles students faced in reading, prompting Ashton to return to school at East Carolina University to obtain her Master’s in Reading Education in 2013. In 2020, Ashton began serving as an instructional coach in grades K-8 before moving into the district K-5 ELA curriculum specialist role in 2022. Anchoring in Reading Horizons, Ashton began her journey in the science of reading and leading LETRS in Pitt County. In 2023, she completed her Master’s in School Administration at East Carolina University and will begin the doctoral program at Appalachian State in the fall of 2024. Currently Ashton is leading the district in all things literacy in K-5 serving 25 elementary schools.
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