ERNEST MORRELL is the Director of the Institute for Urban and Minority Education (IUME) and Professor of English Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. He is also the Vice-President of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) and will assume the presidency of this 50,000-member organization in 2013. For nearly twenty years Dr. Morrell’s research has focused on drawing upon youth’s interest in popular culture and participatory media technologies to increase motivation and to promote academic literacy development, civic engagement and college access. He is also recognized nationally for developing powerful models of teaching and learning in classrooms and non-school environments and for engaging youth and communities in the project of educational reform. Professor Morrell has written more than 50 articles that have appeared in journals such as Teachers College Record, the Journal of Teacher Education, Reading Research Quarterly, English Education, the English Journal, the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, Action in Teacher Education, and the Annual Yearbook of the National Reading Conference. He has written numerous book chapters and four books including The Art of Critical Pedagogy: Possibilities for Moving from Theory to Practice in Urban Schools (with Jeff Duncan-Andrade) and Critical Literacy and Urban Youth: Pedagogies of Access, Dissent, and Liberation. He is a sought after speaker by universities, school districts, professional organizations, and private foundations. Morrell has also received several commendations for his teaching including being recognized five times by Who’s Who Among America’s High School teachers and receiving UCLA’s Department of Education’s Distinguished Teaching Award. Morrell received his Ph.D. in Language, Literacy, and Culture from the University of California, Berkeley and was the recipient of the Outstanding Dissertation award.

Morrell has been invited to give numerous keynote addresses on his work on popular culture and literacy achievement for urban adolescents to postsecondary institutions such as Columbia University, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, DePaul University, Barnard University, Simmons University, and New York University; research organizations such as the National Council of Teachers of English Assembly for Research, the National Reading Conference, the Black Education Alliance of Massachusetts, the Michigan Reading Association, and the Michigan Council of teachers of English, private foundations such as the HOPE Foundation, the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation; and local school districts and schools throughout the nation, including work with Boston Public School teachers through the Boston Plan for Excellence in Education. Morrell is currently involved in a research project examining the applications of critical pedagogy in several classrooms across Los Angeles. He is also involved in a summer seminar where urban teens conduct research project in local neighborhoods and schools.

Morrell previously taught English for six years at Oakland High school in Northern California where he was nominated five times for “Who’s Who Among America’s High School Teachers” and was recognized by the Oakland Unified School District, Oakland Community Organizations, US Congresswoman Barbara Lee, and the California State Senate for his service to the Oakland Public Schools. Morrell received his doctorate in Language, Literacy, and Culture from the University of California at Berkeley.