Deborah Horan

I began my journey as an educator in Denver Public Schools (DPS), as a Spanish-English bilingual elementary teacher. To better advocate for language minority families, I pursued a doctorate at a social justice-focused institution, Boston College, with an emphasis within Teacher Education on Language, Literacy & Culture. While in Boston, I collaborated with educators in Boston Public Schools around literacy for multilingual students.

My previous experiences include collaborating as a literacy specialist on the Ithuba Writing Project, as funded by USAID. This collaboration with the South African Department of Education focused on creating national public school “readers” (text materials), authored and illustrated by Bantu-speaking teachers and artists. English versions of these culturally relevant materials are available within three DPS Newcomer schools, as facilitated through a donation from the Ithuba Writing Project to support Denver’s African refugee population.