Kimberly N. Parker

Dr. Kimberly N. Parker is an award‑winning educator and literacy advocate based in Boston whose work centers on using literacy to support the high achievement of Black, Latinx, and other students of color. She has worked in literacy communities with young people for more than 20 years, including public school teaching, preparing preservice teachers, conducting research on supporting Black boy readers, and providing professional development to schools and educators across the United States.

Parker is the director of the Crimson Summer Academy at Harvard University and the 2020 recipient of the National Council of Teachers of English Outstanding Elementary Educator Award. She is the author of Literacy Is Liberation: Working Toward Justice Through Culturally Relevant Teaching (ASCD, 2022), which documents her classroom and professional development work in building culturally relevant intentional literacy communities. A cofounder of #DisruptTexts and #31DaysIBPOC and a former president of the Black Educators’ Alliance of MA (BEAM), Parker also writes and speaks widely on equitable, justice‑oriented literacy instruction.