Alice Levine has taught adult learners for over 35 years—in ESOL, ABE/GED classes, and family literacy programs. She has worked in a wide variety of settings, including programs in public housing, stand-alone adult education schools, refugee programs and community organizations, and an adult literacy class for women in Guatemala.   

For the last 15 years of her career, Alice worked with the Boston Public Schools in the Family and Community Engagement Department. There she served as the Family Education Curriculum Specialist and taught courses (in English and in Spanish) for parents in the areas of ESL, reading, and math. She also developed and implemented a model for Parent-Child Reading Clubs and trained community leaders to facilitate these clubs in Spanish, Arabic, Somali, Chinese, and Vietnamese. Starting from her time with the Boston Public Schools, Alice has developed an extensive and deep knowledge of books that speak to the experiences of adults and families from a variety of racial, cultural, and language backgrounds. 

Since moving out to Western MA, Alice has been consulting and training teachers with a variety of agencies, districts, and schools. She places a special focus on using books that reflect the life experiences and cultural knowledge of learners. She also has extensive knowledge of books that deal with a variety of diversity, equity, and social justice issues (including gender, ability/disability, religion, immigration status, and more).    

Mercedez is a bilingual adult education teacher who has taught a wide range of different age groups and students from different nationalities in the Dominican Republic, the US, and Spain. Most recently, she has focused on the adult education of immigrants in NYC. She co-created a community for adult ed teachers that offer their classes in Spanish. This community includes a list of over 100 educators across the US (including Puerto Rico). Along with other colleagues, she has also led and organized workshops called “Compartir entre Colegas” for those teachers who feel excluded from developing their knowledge in their native language.