Hiller A. Spires, Ph.D. is nationally and internationally recognized for her innovative research and approach to K-12 education, particularly as related to digital, disciplinary and global literacies. Her 43-year career in education, includes teaching high school in Chattanooga, T.N., directing the Academic Skills Program at the University of South Carolina, and serving 36 years at North Carolina State University. Spires served as an associate dean and executive director of the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation and an Alumni Distinguished Graduate Professor of Literacy and Technology in North Carolina State’s College of Education.

Spires joined North Carolina State’s College of Education as an assistant professor in 1986 and was promoted to full professor in 1998. She was the founding director of the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation from 2002 to 2006, leading in all facets of making the Friday Institute a reality when its doors opened. Spires began serving a second round as the Friday Institute’s executive director in November 2019. Under Spires’ leadership, the Friday Institute supported North Carolina K-12 educators as they shifted to emergency remote learning at the beginning of the pandemic. She also led the N.C. Literacy and Equity Summit in 2022 which engaged 834 educators virtually to address the question: How do we transform our shared aspiration—that all N.C. students read on grade level—into action? The Friday Institute served over 80,000 educators and all 115 public school districts across North Carolina through online professional learning since 2020.

Spires’ research focuses on the integration of research-based practices for digital and disciplinary literacies with diverse learners; she has received over $13 million in grants to support her research program and published over 200 referenced articles, chapters, and papers. 

Spires created Project-Based Inquiry (PBI) Global, an inquiry-to-action learning cycle that engages students and educators in responding to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Over 3,000 teachers have engaged in PBI Global in the U.S., Belize, Kenya and China. She was also the founding director of the Friday Institute’s New Literacies Collaborative and led the development of the New Literacies and Global Learning (NLGL) Master’s degree program, including the K-12 Literacy Cohort. This program annually graduated the most master’s-level literacy teachers of any program of its kind in North Carolina since 2009. 

Globally, Spires has conducted extensive research, teaching and engagement with teachers in China for which she received NC State’s Jackson A. Rigney International Service Award in 2011. In 2013, she was approached to help design and create Suzhou North America High School, as a model high school which embraces the best of eastern and western educational practices; she continues to serve as their Honorary Principal. Spires’ research and engagement activities with educators in China culminated in the groundbreaking book, Digital Transformation and Innovation in Chinese Education, which she published in 2018. In 2020, she published Read, Write, Inquire: Disciplinary Literacy for Grades 6-12 with Teachers College Press.

Spires received her Ph.D. and Master of Arts in Literacy and English Education from the University of South Carolina and her Bachelor of Science in English Education from Tennessee Temple University.

Spires is continuing her literacy research and engagement work by co-editing Critical Perspectives in Global Literacies: Bridging Research and Practice through Routledge Publishers, due out in May 2023. She is also creating Margie’s Books, in honor of her mother, with the Triangle Community Foundation, which will provide children’s and young adult books to under-resourced educational communities, both locally and globally.

Andy Posey began his educational voyage in the 20th century when he was hired by Lexington County School District Two to teach elementary school Spanish. Through a minor in Spanish and a master’s degree in history, he became dual-certified. He began teaching in Spanish and traveled between three elementary schools.

He began teaching at Fulmer Middle School teaching sixth, seventh and eighth grade Spanish, as well as seventh grade social studies. He later transitioned to teaching seventh grade social studies full time and is currently in that role. 

He coached basketball nine years until the birth of his son, Thurston. He previously served as Social Studies Department Chair and currently is Seventh Grade Team Leader. Under Principal Dixon Brooks, Posey attended a Professional Learning Communities conference where he was inspired to revolutionize his school. This work led to his school becoming a “National School to Watch.” Fulmer Middle has continually received this designation under Megan Carrero. 

Outside of school, Posey spends time with his wife, Melanie, and son. He coaches basketball and baseball. He and his family enjoy playing disc golf, traveling and spending time playing with their German Shepard, Luna.

Adrianna Shoemaker is a special education teacher for students with mild intellectual disabilities at R. H. Fulmer Middle School. She graduated from the University of South Carolina in 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in sociology and philosophy, a minor in African Studies and leadership distinction in diversity and social advocacy. As an undergraduate, Adrianna began working for CarolinaLIFE, an individualized, non-degree program for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. She continued her graduate training at USC through the Project Impact grant under Tony Plotner, Ph.D., while pursuing her master’s degree in special education and becoming a board certified behavior analyst (BCBA).

Upon completion of her master’s degree and BCBA certification, Adrianna began teaching at R. H. Fulmer Middle School, where she previously completed her student teaching. During her first year, Adrianna taught students with moderate intellectual disabilities, addressing complex academic, emotional and behavioral needs. At the conclusion of her first year teaching, Adrianna was awarded the 2021-2022 Teacher of the Year award by her colleagues. Adrianna is passionate about supporting students in building the self-advocacy skills necessary for reaching their greatest potential. Additionally, she devotes time and energy toward ensuring school staff members feel competent in responding to crisis situations. Recently, Adrianna and her teaching assistants presented at a conference for South Carolina Middle Level Educators on building and sustaining staff rapport in a self-contained special education classroom.

Adrianna would like to thank her administrators, Megan Carrero, Ph.D.,  Mr. Jonathan Wilburn and Ms. Denise Norris, as well as her teaching assistants, Mrs. Danielle Nesbit and Ms. Shalonda Cheeseboro. She could not be the educator she is without them. She would also like to thank her fiancé, Stephen Trello, and her parents, Sharon and Charlie Shoemaker, for supporting her through the ups and downs that come with a job in public education.

Megan Carrero, Ph.D. is in her 20th year of service to public education in Lexington School District 2 and is currently the principal at Fulmer Middle School. A first generation college graduate, Megan is a 2003 graduate of Newberry College and has completed her Master of Education (2003), Educational Specialist (2018), and Doctor of Philosophy (2022) degrees from the University of South Carolina in Education Administration. Throughout her graduate level programming in the College of Education, Megan has had the opportunity to take a deep dive into district, state and federal education policy making, while focusing her research on leadership development for aspiring school principals. 

Megan is actively involved in a wide range of educational networks, including the S.C. Association for Middle Level Education (SC-AMLE), the Association for Middle Level Education, Association for School Curriculum and Development, S.C. Association of School Administrators, National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform, state level Schools to Watch team and the S.C. Middle Grades Initiative. Megan was named S.C. Middle Level Principal of the Year by the S.C. Association of School Administrators in 2022, inducted into the Newberry College Hall of Master Teachers, and recognized by the SC-AMLE as the Dr. Randy Wall Distinguished Service Award recipient. Under her leadership, Fulmer Middle School has been designated and redesignated as a National School to Watch four times, highlighting high performing middle schools in the areas of academic excellence, developmental responsiveness and social equity. Fulmer Middle is also a Model Professional Learning Community School at Work and is nationally recognized as a school that is responsive to academic growth for all students in its community with specific commendations in the areas of special education, multilingual learning, and academic achievement for economically disadvantaged students. 

At USC, Megan is involved in the Professional Development Schools Network, Carolina Teacher Induction Program Advisory Board, Teaching Fellows Advisory Board, Educational Leadership Principal Advisory Board, and she has recently begun work in microcredentialing with Carolina CrEd and the Center for Teaching Quality.

Megan is married to her husband, Joseph, of 15 years, and they have two sons  ̶  William and James. Outside of school, Megan and her family enjoy spending time cheering on the Gamecocks, and she loves reading, cooking and most importantly, being a sports mom.

Regina Evarn Wragg Ciphrah, Ph.D. is a scholar, scientist, educator, entrepreneur, wife, daughter and sister. After graduating as the first Black American valedictorian of Georgetown High School in Georgetown, S.C., she attended the University of South Carolina and completed a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry and Master of Teaching degree in secondary science education. Dr. Ciphrah was elected Teacher of the Year during her second year of teaching and was inaugural faculty at one of South Carolina’s first middle colleges before earning her Ph.D. in Biology at USC. Her dissertation explored the genetics involved in breast cancer health disparities as well as implementation of transdisciplinary curriculum through teacher professional learning.

Dr. Ciphrah’s professional experiences as an educator include employment as a public school teacher, professional development facilitator, program and organizational evaluator, state education agency program coordinator, teacher education faculty member and higher education administrator. Currently as the CEO of Verbalizing Visions, LLC, Dr. Ciphrah brings more than twenty years of experience as an educator to leading the company’s technical assistance projects. Her passion and expertise involve redressing opportunities for STEM enterprise participation of underrepresented cultures and individuals. She beheld as a child and continues to rectify as a practitioner opportunity for reclamation of historical and current STEM enterprise participation of diverse cultures and individuals. Her platform as Ms. Palmetto Pride Plus America 2017 included a focus on STEM literacy as a matter of socioeconomic justice for underrepresented youth. As co-PI and Director of Education for the Culturally Sustaining STEM Institute, a feasibility study designed to support professional learning of in-service and preservice teachers in community-based settings. The project’s video, Culturally Sustaining STEM Learning in Gullah Communities, was distinguished among 267 federally funded projects with the special recognition of Public Choice and was acknowledged as most discussed on the National Science Foundation’s global STEM for All 2022 video showcase.

Dr. Ciphrah serves her community as Chair of the Advisory Board for the South Carolina Coalition for Math and Science and as a 2022 Farmasis with the mission of supporting 1 million Black women in South Carolina in growing at least one food item at their homes. Aside from working and serving in areas she loves, Dr. Ciphrah finds additional balance and joy in life through loving relationships with her husband, f/phamily, and fur babies; gardening; preparing whole foods; performing poetry she writes; and playing card, board and party games. 

Dr. James H. Rex, a graduate of the University of Toledo, has a bachelor’s degree in English, a master’s degree in public school administration, and a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction. He began his career as a high school English teacher and football coach in Toledo, Ohio at Whitmer High School. He worked at the University of Toledo as a graduate assistant and instructor in the Ph.D. program. He was a professor and  Dean of the College of Education at Coastal Carolina University. He later served as Dean of the College of Education at Winthrop University, Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at Coastal Carolina University, Vice President for Institutional Advancement at the University of South Carolina and President of Columbia College.

Rex was elected and served as the 16th State Superintendent of Education for South Carolina. He was the recipient of the Order of the Palmetto (Highest Civilian Recognition in S.C.) in 2010.

He presently serves as the National Chair Emeritus of the Alliance Party  ̶  a new national political party created to give voters a new choice in, and a new approach to, American politics.

Rex is married to Dr. Sue Rex. Together they have four children and ten grandchildren. He resides in Fairfield County, South Carolina.