Janet Isserlis

Office Building 1 863-2839 janet_isserlis@brown.edu

Background

As part of RI's Adult Education Professional Development Center, Janet Isserlis works with area adult literacy practitioners and learners to expand professional development opportunities, and assist in strengthening learning opportunities for adult learners. At the Swearer Center for Public Service at Brown University, she advises student programs combining literacy and the arts. She has worked with adult immigrants and refugees in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Vancouver, BC since 1980. In addition to classroom work, she is a co-author of Making Connections: A Literacy and EAL Curriculum from a Feminist Perspective”, author of a number of articles about language/literacy learning, assessment and practitioner research, and a 1999-2000 Literacy Leadership fellow of the National Institute for Literacy where she undertook an exploration of the impacts of violence and trauma on adult learning.

Janet facilitates teacher education workshops at educational sites and regional and national adult education meetings and conferences. She completed a Master's degree in English as a second language and cross-cultural studies at Brown in 1991, and holds a teaching degree from the Rhode Island School of Design.