My greatest joy is writing for children and the happiness of seeing my books
in the hands of young children, and of the many children in my family.
Profile
Dr. Alma Flor Ada directs the Center for Multicultural Literature for Children and Young Adults at the University of San Francisco, where she has been a professor since 1976. She has guided the doctoral research of numerous students in the Program of International Multicultural Education. The abstracts of the dissertations which focus on Children’s Literature can be found at the center's web site : www.soe.usfca.edu/childlit.
Dr. Ada was the founder and First
Editor in Chief of :
NABE, Journal of the National Association for Bilingual
Education
She has been active for many years in various professional
associations including :
IRA, International Reading Association
CRA, California
Reading Association
CABE, California Association for Bilingual Education
USIBBY, US Branch of the International Board of Books for Young People
She is
a member of :
Advisory Board of Loose Leaf Public Radio Programs
National Television Workshop
Between the Lines
Reading Up!, Natural Head Start
Association
A frequent speaker at national and international
conferences, Dr. Ada also works in school districts with children, teachers and
parents.
The award-winning author of numerous children’s books and
a prolific translator, Alma Flor Ada is a leading mentor and philosopher of
bilingual education in the United States.
She has authored several reading
programs, among them two Spanish reading programs :
Cielo abierto (K-6)
Vamos de fiesta! (K-3)
and of two English reading programs :
Signatures
(K-6)
Collections (K- 6)
and is a series consultant for Relatos de la
historia (1-5), a Spanish social studies program developed by Harcourt School
Publishers.
Among her most substantive contributions to the
transmission of Hispanic culture to children are :
Música amiga, a program for
learning through songs, published by Del Sol
Books
Puertas al Sol - Pathways to the Sun,
published by Santillana
Latino poetry,
Art, and Biographies for children,
published by Santillana
Dr. Ada received her Ph.D. in Spanish Literature from the Pontifical Catholic University of Lima, Perú and did post-doctoral research at Harvard University as a Fellow of the Radcliffe Institute and a Fulbright Research Scholar.