Albert J. Kingston Award: Virginia Goatley

2018 Albert J. Kingston Recipient

Congratulations to Dr. Virginia J. Goatley, the 2018 Albert J. Kingston Award recipient for distinguished service to the Literacy Research Association. Dr. Ginny Goatley is a professor and department chair at the University at Albany-SUNY School of Education in the Department of Literacy Teaching and Learning. Her research focuses on preventing reading and writing difficulties for children. Dr. Goatley’s research concomitantly addresses professional development on effective assessment and instruction, as well as teacher preparation. Dr. Goatley has been attending the Literacy Research Association conference for twenty-five years, and she has contributed her time, talent, and service to the organization from the very beginning. Throughout the years, Dr. Goatley has consistently offered distinguished service to our organization in various meaningful and innovative ways.

Ginny Goatley’s first National Reading Conference was in 1991 at Palm Springs, where as a doctoral student she reveled in the opportunity to learn from the experts and to network with other doctoral students with similar interests. Dr. Goatley fondly recalls this first conference experience, “Members of the organization welcomed me to the community, asking about my interests and commenting on my talk…..I have attended almost all years since then (missing one year while on a trip to China).”

In 1993-94, Dr. Goatley began her service for the organization. In these early years, she observed needs and worked to collaborate with others to meet those needs with innovative ideas and solutions. Study groups were fairly new to the organization at the time, and as a graduate student, Ginny recognized the importance of such avenues for budding students to research, grow, and network within the organization. She worked with Fenice Boyd and other conference leaders to integrate specific activities for graduate students into the program. She served as chair of the Graduate Student Study group for two years. At the same time, Ginny chaired a Student Events Committee, which worked to provide opportunities for prominent scholars to share and interact with graduate-level students. Dr. Goatley notes, “This service commitment kept me coming to the conference as a doctoral student and I soon transitioned into other types of service. I found it helpful and rewarding to participate.” Her dedication to meeting the needs of graduate students continued and evolved over the years. Dr. Goatley has served as a model of high quality scholarship and dedicated service ever since. Many of her students over the years have received dissertation awards and have become active in service to LRA following her example.

Over the last twenty-five years, Dr. Goatley has served on a variety of committees, many of which she served as Chair. She has served as an LRA Area Chair, a proposal reviewer, and a member of the National Reading Conference Yearbook Editorial Review Board to name a few. Ginny Goatley has served as a member or chair of various LRA committees, including the Oscar Causey Award committee, the Edward B. Fry Book Award Committee, and even the Albert J. Kingston Award Committee. Dr. Goatley took the lead in collaborations with other leaders in the organization to get the Arthur Applebee Award for Excellence in Research on Literacy committee running with much success, as the award was first presented in 2017. She co-chaired the committee for this award in 2017 and will continue to serve as chair from 2018–2021. Dr. Goatley also serves as current co-editor of the Journal of Literacy Research, the organization’s premier journal.

When asked to comment on how her membership in the Literacy Research Association has been rewarding over the years, Dr. Goatley notes the multiple and varied benefits of service. She states, “My membership has been rewarding in terms of learning about current research in my areas of interest, connections with others in the profession, a means to learn new content and theory, and a community connection to a growing number of friends and colleagues from across the country.” Through study groups, presentation teams, and committee work, Dr. Goatley has gained many professional colleagues via the conference. She adds that “the Journal of Literacy Research, LR:TMP, listserv, and other resources are also an important part of my membership to engage with current research and information.”

For newer members in the Literacy Research Association, Dr. Goatley points out that there are many ways to be involved. She advises that it is important to make connections to research interests. When volunteering for service areas in LRA over the years, Dr. Goatley has looked for professional service that is intertwined with her teaching and scholarship. She keeps an open mind ready to learn and explore new research paths as well. For example, she states, “…The Ed Fry book award committee led me to read books that covered the range of LRA research areas that help me tremendously with my own research.”

Ginny Goatley encourages seasoned members of LRA to continue to serve. She states, “LRA will always need experienced leaders and ongoing participation as a way to build the knowledge and understanding of how to do so.” Careful reviews of manuscripts is critical for mentoring newer authors while also supporting more experienced authors. Serving as models of leadership for newer scholars in the organization is crucial as well. Participation on committees over time helped Dr. Goatley learn more about how to chair committees and take leadership roles.

In her acceptance remarks regarding the Albert J. Kingston Award honor, Dr. Goatley showcased a heart of gratitude for the many colleagues and leaders who influenced her throughout the years. She remarked, “Thank you to LRA leadership who listened and supported a small group of graduate students when we asked to have a few sessions specifically for graduate students on the conference program. The leaders set a standard for how to be part of a community. Thank you to all the LRA committee chairs who mentored me into committee meetings, showing how leaders facilitate and reach hard decisions with the group. Thank you to LRA proposal and manuscript reviewers who provided thoughtful comments on my ideas and showed me how to do the same for others. Thank you to my many mentors, teaching colleagues, and students who remind me that professional service is always intertwined with my teaching and scholarship – often in ways that can influence literacy policy and practice. And thank you to my family, especially my mother, who showed that service is not only a part of our lives but integral to everything we do.”

In conclusion, the nomination letter for Dr. Goatley states, “…Ginny has been an innovative, thoughtful, hardworking, and selfless contributor to her academic home [LRA] through the service that she has provided to LRA since she started attending the conference in the early 1990s. We can think of no one more deserving of the 2018 Albert J. Kingston Award than Dr. Virginia J. Goatley.” The Albert J. Kingston Committee agrees! Many thanks to Dr. Ginny Goatley for your legacy of ongoing dynamic and distinguished service to our organization.