Melissa Summer Wells (@mswells01) is an Assistant Professor of Education at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, VA.  She has experience as a 3rd grade teacher, a kindergarten teacher, and a literacy coach.  She completed her Ph.D. in Language and Literacy from the University of South Carolina in 2017. Her research interests include coaching teachers into culturally relevant teaching and designing dialogic learning communities with families. Wells was a 2015 South Carolina ASCD Emerging Leader, 2016 ASCD Emerging Leader, and was named to the International Literacy Association (ILA)’s “30 Under 30” list in 2016.