Talk about snow on the mountaintops! Email has been piling up like snow drifts here on Chicken Corner Mountain. My modem went down, and a new one had to be delivered in real time; I got snowed in because reading and writing on a handheld device is such a hunt and peck kind of affair. Lots of interesting things sat on ice this week, unread and unanswered till the blessed arrival of the UPS truck. But one in particular got my interest.

I was sorry to see that Melanie Stephens is stepping down as director of Centro Latino for Literacy, which exists primarily to teach adult Latinos to read, many of them undocumented. A good proportion of El Centro's clients were not allowed to go to school as children in rural Mexico. Though, in our written world, the ways in which a person does not learn to read as a child are more particular, less easy to generalize, than the ways in which one does.

Stephens wrote:

After 6 years as Executive Director, I am stepping aside at the end of the year for family reasons. I will continue to be part of the Centro Latino staff in a grant development role. The timing is good for this transition. We have a talented staff, a committed Board of Directors and a stable financial position. We also have a compelling mission and very hard working literacy students.

Ana Maria Ruiz, our Literacy Campaign Director, will be our Interim Executive Director through the successful completion of our search.

The organization was founded in 1991. More info on Centro Latino at www.centrolatinoliteracy.org and www.leamos.org.