Cohort 1
Samantha Thomas EDUCATION • M.S. in Literacy Education UW-Oshkosh • B.S. inSecondary Education-English Marian University
ENROLLED • Cohort 1
LOCATION • Omro, Wis.
Samantha J. Thomas is a literacy specialist with nearly two decades of experience improving adolescent literacy through instruction, intervention, assessment, and systems-level improvement. After earning a Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education-English from Marian University of Fond du Lac, Samantha began her career as a secondary English Language Arts teacher. Her classroom experience fostered a strong interest in literacy instruction and a deep commitment to supporting striving adolescent readers and writers. She later earned a Master of Science in Education-Literacy from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, expanding her expertise in literacy assessment, intervention, and evidence-based instructional practices. Today, Samantha serves as the Secondary Literacy Interventionist for the Omro School District, where she provides structured literacy intervention and English Language Arts instruction for students in grades 6–8 through a blended Tier 1/Tier 2 model. As an Associate Level Practitioner with the Orton-Gillingham Academy and a Certified Dyslexia Interventionist (CERI), she specializes in supporting students with persistent reading difficulties using structured literacy practices. By documenting student outcomes from Orton-Gillingham implementation, she helped demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach, contributing to district investment in expanding Orton-Gillingham training for literacy intervention staff and strengthening long-term instructional capacity. Samantha’s doctoral research extends her commitment to sustainable literacy improvement by examining how literacy systems in public education lose coherence over time. Drawing on implementation science and organizational learning, her research explores how schools can preserve institutional knowledge to maintain coherent literacy practices despite shifting initiatives, competing priorities, and administrator and teacher turnover. Ultimately, her work seeks to identify practical strategies that enable schools to sustain effective literacy systems over time rather than repeatedly rebuilding them.
UW-Stevens Point
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