Jennifer Diliberto, Ph.D., a clinical associate professor at the UNC School of Education, has been named to the Carolina Center for Public Service’s tenth class of Thorp Faculty Engaged Scholars and will receive funding and additional support to advance scholarship aimed at increasing literacy of students with disabilities through partnership with local schools and community nonprofits.
Diliberto has over 20 years of experience in special education and has taught in both public and private K-12 school settings, serving students with high-incidence disabilities. A member of the School’s faculty since 2014, she has presented and published on topics related to educators with disabilities, working with families of students with disabilities, literacy instruction, inclusive education, and teacher recruitment.
As a faculty engaged scholar, Diliberto hopes to work closely with school districts to identify and implement new ways to build the foundational literacy skills of upper elementary and middle school students with disabilities. Diliberto said state-level data shows that this group of students especially needed additional support to achieve literacy proficiency.
“I’m honored and overjoyed to join this cohort of Carolina colleagues and to receive opportunities and funding to grow my engaged scholarship,” Diliberto said. “I hope my time as a Thorp Engaged Scholar provides a new pathway to literacy for a group of students who need additional support.”
Previously, Diliberto has developed a supplemental curriculum, Taking on Tough Words, that has been chosen by multi-tiered system of support teams for use as a Tier II or III intervention for students with needs in multisyllabic decoding.
Diliberto is an active member of the Council for Exceptional Children and is serving a 4-year term on the organization’s board of directors.
The latest cohort of Thorp Faculty Engaged Scholars — which includes 10 UNC-Chapel Hill faculty members — spans a range of disciplines and represents four professional schools and the College of Arts and Sciences. Over the next two years, as a learning community, cohort members will visit an array of community-based research projects led by Carolina faculty, further their knowledge of engaged scholarship, and pursue their own individual projects.
This program is made possible by an endowment named in honor of former UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Holden Thorp. It provides funding and other support for Carolina faculty interested in advancing their scholarship through mutually beneficial partnerships with communities.
Diliberto joins Cheryl Bolick and Helyne Frederick as School of Education faculty members selected as Thorp Engaged Faculty Scholars. Bolick and Frederick were part of the seventh and eighth cohorts, respectively.