Lynsey Burkins

Lynsey Burkins is an elementary educator in Ohio with over twenty years of experience working with children, currently serving third-grade students in Dublin City Schools. She holds a master’s degree in Language, Literacy, and Culture from The Ohio State University and focuses her classroom practice on creating antiracist spaces where children feel free, have agency, and know they are loved. Burkins has been active in professional leadership, including serving as the National Chair of NCTE’s Build Your Stack initiative, which supports teachers in selecting and using high‑quality literature in their classrooms.

Burkins is the co‑author of In Community with Readers: Transforming Reading Instruction with Read‑Alouds and Minilessons, which advocates for whole‑class reading instruction grounded in community, student identity, and agency, and was published by Routledge in 2024. She is also the co‑author of Classroom Design for Student Agency: Create Spaces to Empower Young Readers and Writers, published by the National Council of Teachers of English in 2023. In her writing and professional presentations, Burkins emphasizes the power of books and classroom design to help students make sense of their world, nurture their spirits and minds, and develop as independent, socially