Alma Flor Ada, PhD

Alma Flor Ada, PhD.

An interview with Dr. Flor Ada

Alma Flor Ada, Pro­fes­sor Emerita at the Uni­ver­sity of San Fran­cisco, has devoted her life to advo­cacy for peace by pro­mot­ing a ped­a­gogy ori­ented to per­sonal real­iza­tion and social jus­tice. A for­mer Rad­cliffe Scholar at Har­vard Univer­sity and Ful­bright Research Scholar, she is an inter­na­tion­ally renown speaker.

Her pro­fes­sional books for edu­ca­tors, include A Mag­i­cal Encounter: Latino Children’s Lit­er­a­ture in the Class­room, and Authors in the Class­room: A Transfor­ma­tive Edu­ca­tion Process co-authored with F. Isabel Cam­poy, about their work pro­mot­ing author­ship in stu­dents, teach­ers, and parents.

Alma Flor’s numer­ous children’s books of poetry, nar­ra­tive, folk­lore and non-fic­tion have received pres­ti­gious awards; among many: Christo­pher Medal (The Gold Coin), Pura Bel­pré Medal (Under the Royal Palms), Once Upon a World (Gath­er­ing the Sun), Par­ents’ Choice Honor (Dear Peter Rab­bit), NCSS and CBC Notable Book (My Name is María Isabel), Marta Salotti Gold Medal (Encaje de piedra). In 2012 she received the Vir­ginia Hamil­ton Lit­er­ary Award in recog­ni­tion of her body of work for children.

Awards

• Alma Flor Ada has been awarded the Dis­tin­guished Pro­fes­sor Award at the Uni­ver­sity of San Fran­cisco
• Amer­i­can Edu­ca­tion Research Asso­ci­a­tion [AERA] His­panic Issues Award for Research in Ele­men­tary
• Sec­ondary and Post­sec­ondary Edu­ca­tion
• Califor­nia Asso­ci­a­tion for Bilin­gual Edu­ca­tion [CABE] Life Long Award
• Cal­i­for­nia Coun­cil for Higher Edu­ca­tion 2011 Award
• 2012 Lit­er­ary Award of the Amer­i­can Asso­ci­a­tion of His­pan­ics in Higher Edu­ca­tion. Dr. Ada has also estab­lished an endow­ment for the Cal­i­for­nia Asso­ci­a­tion for Bilin­gual Edu­ca­tion (CABE) to pro­vide schol­ar­ships for future teachers.