Introducing Our Community & Practitioner and Faculty Fellows
MILE is happy to announce our last round of additions to the MILE team: Community & Practitioner Fellows and Faculty Fellows. These scholars, educators, practitioners, and leaders bring a wealth of knowledge and practical expertise to our initiative. Our Community & Practitioner Fellows bring valuable, on-the-ground knowledge, and commitment to strengthen MILE’s efforts and further our mission. Our Faculty Fellows bring innovative scholarship and collaborative approaches to further advance MILE’s mission. We are excited to welcome them to the team and look forward to partnering to advance literacy and equity.
Liane Thornhill, M.S., CCC-SLP • Speech-Language Pathologist
Kennedy Krieger Institute
Liane Thornhill is MILE’s inaugural Community & Practitioner Fellow. As a licensed speech-language pathologist, trained research clinician, and experienced early interventionist, Liane Thornhill thinks critically about the social advantages that interact with child development, (in)equitable outcomes, and access to quality care.
Dr. Thomas Noel • School of Education and Urban Studies
Morgan State University
Dr. Thomas Noel is an Assistant Professor at Morgan State University. His research interests center around Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) with schools and students in urban communities.
Dr. Krishna Bista • Department of Advanced Studies, Leadership, and Policy
Morgan State University
Dr. Krishna Bista is a Professor in the Community College Leadership Program at Morgan State University. His research interests include minority student college access and success, immigration issues, digital gap, and AI and literacy.
Dr. Reka Barton • Department of Teaching and Learning, Policy and Leadership
University of Maryland
Dr. Reka Barton is an Assistant Professor of Literacy Education at the University of Maryland. Dr. Barton is an educator, curator and craftivist that researches multimodality, multilingualism and multiliteracies in and with communities of Black and Brown women and children in hopes of socially just and more equitable realities. Dr. Barton embeds these approaches in her teaching and service as well. She is a former elementary school teacher, with the majority of her classroom teaching career spent in dual language and urban classrooms. In addition to her classroom experience, she also has expertise in curriculum design, professional development for teachers, and literacy and biliteracy coaching. Dr. Barton teaches courses in children's literature and literacy methods. Her recent publications can be found in Children's Literature in Education, Journal of Language and Literacy Education, and Departures in Critical Qualitative Research.
Dr. Ana Ndumu • College of Information
University of Maryland
Dr. Ana Ndumu is an Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland. Her work explores the intersection of Blackness, borders, information, and social inclusion. Additionally, Dr. Ndumu explores ways of increasing racial realism within the library and information science field. Information access involves people's reading or digital skills, as well as external forces such as policies and resource sharing. The overarching question that she wishes to answer is “What is the relationship between U.S. socioracial stratification and information access?” Through community-engaged and participatory methods, Dr. Ndumu examines immigrant information behavior and Black representation within the library and information science (LIS) field. She collaborates with national library associations, including the Black Caucus of the American Library Association, the National Association for Library Service to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking (REFORMA), and the HBCU Library Alliance. She also collaborates with local immigrant advocacy groups like the Haitian Development Center of Delmarva, Solutions in Hometown Connections, UndocuBlack, and Abren Enhun Ethiopian Association. Her most recent publications hone in on immigrant information justice, or measures to remove barriers to information among immigrant communities.
Dr. Cécile Accilien • School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
University of Maryland
Cécile Accilien is Professor of French and Francophone Studies in the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures. She specializes in Francophone African and Caribbean literatures, gender and sexuality studies, and film/media studies. She is affiliated faculty in the Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, the American Studies Department and the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Center. Her publications include Re-Thinking Marriage in Francophone Africa and Caribbean Literature (2008), Bay Lodyans: Haitian Popular Film Culture (2023), The Antiracism World Language Classroom (2022, co-authored), Teaching Haiti: Strategies for Creating New Narratives (co-edited with Valérie Orlando) (2021), and English-Haitian Creole Phrasebook (2010, co-authored). Her writing has appeared in the Journal of Haitian Studies, Women, Gender and Families of Color, Revue française, Southern Quarterly, Diaspora in Caribbean Art, Truthout and Latin American Commentator. She chairs the editorial board for Women, Gender and Families of Color (since 2019) and is the outgoing president of the Haitian Studies Association (2023 & 2024). She recently became associate editor of the Journal of Haitian Studies. She is currently working on a biography of singer, manbo and activist Carole Demesmin.