Somer Levine, a second-year doctoral student in the Department of Education, was awarded the 2022 James D. and Carol N. Dixon Fellowship. This fellowship supports MA or Ph.D. students with a focus on reading studies and/or the broader field of literacy studies. There is a selection preference for Education Department students who are involved in Reading Clinic activities.
Levine focuses her research in critical reading instruction and assessment, and family literacy in Latinx school communities. She is advised by Dr. Diana Arya and Dr. Karen Lunsford. A first-gen college student, Levine is the only teacher in her family, and the first in her family to pursue a doctoral degree. She earned a B.A. in English and Spanish minor from UC Santa Barbara (2006), an M.A. in Secondary Education from Loyola Marymount University (2008), and an Ed.M. in Reading Education from Boston University (2012). She holds a Reading Specialist credential, single subject credential in English, a Bilingual Authorization in Spanish, and a Preliminary Administrative Services credential. For 14 years, Levine enjoyed various teaching roles in Title I public schools. She is currently a Visiting Instructor of Teaching & Director of Clinical Practice in the Teacher Education Division at Pepperdine University.
Carol Dixon is a Senior Lecturer with Security of Employment Emeritus in the Department of Education, where she worked from 1973 to 2009. During her tenure Dixon served as Assistant Dean of the Graduate School of Education and co-director of the South Coast Writing Project (SCWriP). As part of her work with SCWriP, she was co-director of a three-year Literature Institute for Teachers (LIT), funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1987-1990. In addition, she had been the co-director of an advanced institute funded by the California Writing Project, the Advanced Professional Leadership Institute for Teachers of Linguistically Diverse Students in 1993-1994, and of the Advanced Institute on Literacy in 1996-1998. In 1990, Dixon was co-founder of the Santa Barbara Classroom Discourse Group, a research collaborative of university faculty, graduate student researchers, and classroom teacher/researchers within the greater Santa Barbara area.