Families
Families in our programs are residents of Orange County, NC with children from birth to kindergarten that experience barriers to book access and early literacy experiences.
Early Literacy Mentors
The backbone of our organization, Early Literacy Mentors come to us as volunteers dedicated to the mission of furthering Literacy in their community. We train our mentors on the best practices of modeling book sharing and conversation techniques with the families in our programs.
If you share our dedication to literacy and want to make a difference in the Orange County community, we would love to have you join our team of Early Literacy Mentors.
Program Director
Stephanie Knop
Serving as the Early Literacy Mentor program coordinator, Stephanie also functions as office manager, marketing lead, and community outreach facilitator.
Board of Directors
Mary Andrews
Co-Founder/President
Retired Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Literacy Teacher
Aurora Boyer
Home Based Manager, Early Head Start
Chaw Chaw
Home Visitor with OC HeadStart/Early HeadStart
Ashanti Keitt
School Social Worker, Rashkis Elementary
Stephen Friedman
Head of Marketing, Jack Henry
Samuel Maldonado
formerly Family Literacy Program Coordinator, Orange County Literacy Council
Laurie Norman
Director of Alumni Relations, School of Education, UNC Chapel Hill
Rodney Trice
Deputy Superintendent, Teaching & Learning, Systemic Equity & Engagement Officer, Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools
Nancy Zeman
Co-founder/Treasurer
Assistant Director of Programs, Chapel Hill-Carrboro Public School Foundation
Our Contributors
How We Began
Mary Andrews, a literacy teacher, and Nancy Zeman, a program services manager with the Public School Foundation, co-founded Family Reading Partners in 2010 as a pilot program in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools.
In 2012, Mary was named Penguin Random House National Literacy Teacher of the Year and in 2017, she was named Toyota National Family Literacy Teacher of the Year. The monetary award from these national recognitions was used to further Family Reading Partners’ outreach efforts.
Since its founding, Family Reading Partners has flourished, offering the only initiative of its kind in Orange County, North Carolina. Family Reading Partners became a 501 (c) (3) non-profit in 2021.
Our co-founder Mary Andrews, winner of the 2017 Toyota National Family Teacher of the Year award, pictured with Earvin “Magic” Johnson.
