(June 2023) This is such a powerful book. It’s not just the individual journey of Brandon P. Fleming, which is an odyssey of Homeric proportions; it’s how he challenged accepted beliefs about education and changed the lives of Black children by creating opportunities. It’s about the nexus of scholarship and culture. The first part of…
(Nov 2022) I love this book! I told the author, David Toscano, that I wanted to crawl between the pages and curl myself up in it. I started reading Bellwether: Virginia’s Political Transformation, 2006-2020 on November 12, 2022, tucked up in a chair in a mountain cabin in Greene County, VA. Four days earlier, on November…
(Sept 25, 2022) Catherine Read talks with author P. O’Connell Pearson about her newest book We Are Your Children Too: Black Students, White Supremacists, and the Battle for America’s Schools in Prince Edward County, Virginia, to be published in January 2023. This is Patty Pearson’s third non-fiction history designed for young readers. Her 25…
(Sept 19, 2022) Catherine Read talks with Bonnie Stabile, Founder of the Gender and Policy (GAP) Center of George Mason University’s Schar School of Government & Policy. The GAP Center was established in 2017. Areas of research include Gender, Policy Analysis, Program Evaluation, Bioethics, and Ethics in Public Policy. Bonnie is an Associate Professor at…
(Aug 22, 2022) Catherine Read talks with Holly Seibold, Founder of BRAWS: Bringing Resources to Aid Women’s Shelters, a non-profit established in 2015. BRAWS started as a direct services organization to meet the needs of women in area shelters with menstrual supplies, new bras, and underwear. Recognizing the lack of basic supplies to manage monthly…
(Aug. 10, 2022) Catherine Read speaks with Rachel Simon, Regional Relationship Manager in the DC area for Tickets for Kids Charities. The mission of Tickets for Kids is to provide at-risk children with experiences that inspire hope, dreams, and achievements for a lifetime. For children from low-income families, tickets for in-person events are often out…
(May 25, 2022) Catherine Read talks with Margaret Behrns, Founder & Director of the Walk In My Shoes Program (WIMS). She started the program in 2015 at the elementary school her daughter attended in Herndon. The program offers fun and interactive activities that teach children ages 4 to 14 about specific disabilities and conditions….
(Feb 2, 2022) Catherine Read talks with children’s book author, Mary D. Gauthier. This long-time resident of Fairfax City was inspired to write a children’s book about the robots that roamed the streets of the historic downtown of this small city making food deliveries. Mary is a former kindergarten teacher who retired from a long…
(Dec 8, 2021) Catherine Read sits down with Dorothy Keenan, Founder & Executive Director of GrandInvolve, a program that places active older adults in the classrooms of Title I elementary schools in Fairfax County. This program grew out of an initiative by the Fairfax County Council on Aging to address social isolation among seniors. The…
(Oct 2021) This book landed on my radar because it’s written by historian William G. Thomas III, brother of my husband’s law partner Sandy Thomas, who is the global managing partner for Reed Smith LLP. It’s a tremendous work of scholarship. It is also a story well told with plenty of plot twists. The meticulous…
(Jan 30, 2021) Catherine Read interviews Debora “Deb” Wake, President of the League of Women Voters – Virginia. The League was founded in Virginia Nov. 10, 1920 and currently has 14 chapters across the Commonwealth. LWV-VA is involved in voter education and forums under their 501(c)3 and advocacy under their 501(c)4. Issue advocacy is an…
(September 11, 2019) Catherine Read interviews Laura Jane Cohen, candidate for the Fairfax County School Board in the Springfield district. Cohen is a former FCPS teacher, parent of two FCPS students, and former PTA president. This November Virginians will head to the voting booth to elect almost all of our local officials across the commonwealth,…
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