Biography
Dr. Gloria Houston is internationally known as an educator and an author of multi-award winning, best selling books for young readers, as well as a writer of textbooks and other teaching materials. However, she typifies herself as “first, last and always, a teacher.” With a Bachelor’s Degree from Appalachian State University, Boone, NC, and following years of work in public and private schools in grades k-12 in North Carolina, Texas, Louisiana and Florida, she earned a Masters Degree and Ph. D. at the University of South Florida, Tampa. At USF, she was a professor and held an appointed Author-in-Residence position. There, she was the founding coordinator of Suncoast Young Authors Conference, one of more than fifty young writers conferences she has implemented nationally. She also founded the USF Young Writers Camp and the Center for the Study of Child Writing. As an educator, she is designated as a Distinguished Educator by the International Reading Association, which included an invitation to write two chapters in Distinguished Educators on Reading: Contributions that Have Shaped Effective Literacy Education, published once each decade. She won the National Excellence in Literacy Education award for her writing curriculum “Tell Me a Story” for IBM Educational Systems and was appointed to read all writing research data to date and to write the support paper for their “Writing to Write” program, distributed internationally. Appalachian State has named her a Distinguished Alumni and a member of the Rhododendron Society, for her outstanding contributions to education. She sits on the international Governing Board for Computers Across the World (CPAW), with its stated goal of attaining peace through communication. Houston in listed in Who’s Who in America, Outstanding Women of the Twenty-First Century, Who’s Who in the Southwest, Who’s Who in Education, International Who’s Who of Authors, Something about the Author, Contemporary Authors, and other references. As an author of critically acclaimed novels and picture books for young readers, her books have won and been listed on more than forty awards and awards lists, with one international award. In fall, 2010, her picture book honoring all librarians/media specialists, Miss Dorothy and Her Bookmobile(HarperCollins), will be released. Her short story about a music teacher, “Ms. McAdoo’s Christmas Guests,” will also appear in the fall release of James Ransome’s anthology, An American Christmas, a Christy Ottaviano Book from Henry Holt Books for Young Readers. Ms. Houston has all the ornaments from Ms. McAdoo’s tree, which were gifts from her students when she was an elementary music teacher in Texas. Currently, Houston lives in western North Carolina. Working on several projects with Appalachian State University, the NC Library System, and with southeastern regional school systems allows Houston to bring some of her ideas, successfully implemented throughout the nation and the world, to her home region. After a nine year struggle with Environmental Illness, specifically involving an acute sensitivity to hydrocarbons (petrochemicals—most fragrance products, lotions, hairsprays, and cleaning chemicals; tobacco smoke, chlorine and formaldehyde), her health is stable enough that she can again offer her years of training and experience to a wider audience, if accommodations to these chemicals are made. |
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