The 2025 ND Science of Reading Literacy Summit marks the next chapter in advancing literacy instruction across North Dakota! This year’s theme—Encourage. Equip. Empower.—reflects our commitment to supporting educators with evidence-based strategies that translate into real classroom impact.
Join us in Fargo for an inspiring experience featuring national literacy experts, hands-on breakout sessions, and role-aligned learning opportunities designed to encourage collaboration, equip educators with actionable strategies, and empower them to create literacy-rich environments where all students thrive.
PLUS – don’t miss bonus film screening the evening prior to set the stage for inspiring conversations and deeper learning. More details coming soon!
Book your spot for this opportunity to learn, connect, and grow with fellow educators who are passionate about literacy!
📅 Date: July 30-31, 2025 | 🎬 Film Screening: July 29
📍 Location: Fargo, ND
REGISTRATION HAS CLOSED.
If you are interested in attending the event or have questions, please reach out to pd.crea@k12.nd.us.
2025 PRESENTERS
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Lori Sappington
Lori is an energetic former elementary and high school teacher and reading specialist who taught for more than a decade in Baltimore, Maryland. She spent her first years teaching in high school, where she realized many students struggled to read and write well, which piqued her interest to learn more.
Her district’s adoption of a knowledge-building ELA curriculum, inspired her to create the popular podcast: Melissa & Lori Love Literacy, with her co-host Melissa Loftus. She feels grateful to learn alongside their 1 million listeners about how to best teach reading and writing–from leading experts in the field. The podcast connects research to practice, strengthening teachers’ understanding of research looks like in reading instruction.
That goal is also one of her new book with Loftus, The Literacy 50–A Q&A Handbook for Teachers: Real-World Answers to Questions About Reading That Keep You Up at Night. She currently executes the vision and alignment of multimedia content with Great Minds and lives in Maryland with her daughter, Presley, and husband, Michael, where they spend their free time playing sports of all kinds.
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Jamey Peavler
Jamey Peavler is a Co-Director and Assistant Professor in the Reading Science Graduate Program at Mount St. Joseph University. Before joining The Mount, Jamey served as the Director of Training for the M.A. Rooney Foundation, providing Orton-Gillingham training for teachers across Indiana. She was an Instructional Coach and classroom teacher for Indianapolis Public Schools for 20 years. Jamey reviews higher-education textbooks and teacher licensure exams for the National Council for Teacher Quality. She is a Certified Fellow-in-Training with the Orton-Gillingham Academy and an International Dyslexia Association Structured Literacy Dyslexia Specialist. Jamey serves on the Editorial Board for the International Dyslexia Association’s Perspectives in Language and Literacy journal and has over 18 combined years of service on the board of the Reading League’s Indiana and IDA Indiana Chapters.
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Over her 20-year career in education, Genevieve Thomas has served as a special education teacher, a literacy specialist, an instructional coach, a school psychologist, and a special education leader. Currently, Genevieve is the Director of Professional Learning for School Services of Montana and the President of Spark Educational Consulting. She holds graduate degrees in special education and school psychology from Loyola Marymount University, and she is a doctoral student within the Reading Science Program at Mount St. Joseph University. Genevieve is the secretary of the Montana chapter of The Reading League.
Genevieve Thomas
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Dr. Peter Nelson is currently the Principal Consultant and Evaluator at Slate Evaluation Group and has extensive expertise in measurement design, program evaluation, and evidence-based educational practices. Prior to his current role, Dr. Nelson was a tenure track professor at Penn State University and Principal Research Scientist at Serve Minnesota, where he led the design and evaluation of large-scale AmeriCorps initiatives in education, including the validation of assessments to measure program efficacy and inform continuous improvement. His research portfolio includes 40+ peer-reviewed publications on academic intervention, screening, progress monitoring, and data-based decision-making in schools. Dr. Nelson has developed multiple tools to assess students’ literacy and math skills as well as classroom instructional experiences and has co-led several federally and privately funded projects examining tutoring and classroom practices.
Peter Nelson
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Daniel Willingham
Daniel Willingham is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia, where he has taught since 1992. Until about 2000, his research focused solely on the brain basis of learning and memory. Today, all of his research concerns the application of cognitive psychology to K-16 education. He is the author of several books, including the best-selling Why Don't Students Like School?, and most recently, Outsmart Your Brain. His writing on education has appeared in twenty-three languages. In 2017 he was appointed by President Obama to serve as a Member of the National Board for Education Sciences.
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Pam Kastner
Pam Kastner, Ed.D., is a literacy consultant and the former state lead for literacy in Pennsylvania at the Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network (PaTTAN) Harrisburg. Currently, Dr. Kastner is honored to serve as a contributing faculty member at Mount Saint Joseph University in the Reading Science Program where she teaches in the Masters’ and Doctoral Program and was honored as the Adjunct Professor of the Year in 2023. Dr. Kastner has presented widely across the United States and Internationally. She partners with State Departments of Education and school districts throughout the nation to provide on-site technical assistance, consultation and coaching. Dr. Kastner serves on the Pennsylvania Literacy Coalition and has the honor of serving as the President of The Reading League Pennsylvania, The Reading League Journal’s Practitioner Editorial Board, and is a member of The Science of Reading: A Defining Movement coalition.
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Katie Keown is a Literary Director at Student Achievement Partners, a nonprofit focused on improving student outcomes by ensuring all children receive equitable and essential instruction. Her work focuses on our secondary literacy initiatives, including teacher training and aligning systems to ensure all students receive the high-quality reading instruction they deserve. Prior to her time at SAP, she worked on the assessment team at HMH-Riverside and taught middle and high school students in Illinois and Mississippi. Katie is currently in the Reading Science doctoral program at Mount St. Joseph University, where her research interests include adolescent literacy and teacher preparation. She holds a Master’s in Reading Science from the Mount and a Bachelor’s in English from the University of Illinois.
Katie Keown
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Craig Buscher, Ed.D. earned his doctorate at the University of Montana in 2014 following a 12-year career as an elementary teacher, special education teacher, and reading interventionist. Craig provides literacy trainings for school districts across the country in the LETRS professional development program and consults, coaches, and trains teachers in reading and writing instruction and assessment, evidence-based practices, MTSS, and special education. Central in this work is alignment of instructional and assessment practices to the science of reading. Over the last 14 years, he has taught literacy and special education courses as an adjunct professor at the University of Montana. Craig resides in Pray, MT with his wife Sue and their yellow Labrador Lizzie.
Craig Buscher
Also Featuring North Dakota
Legendary! Sessions By:
Bowman County School District
Bowbells Public School
Bismarck Public Schools
Fargo Public Schools
Turtle Mountain Community High School
Jamestown Public Schools
Grand Forks Public Schools
Bottineau School District
Westhope School District
Northern Cass School District
Valley City State University
2025 EXHIBITORS
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