Lauren Kaufman is a district leader, currently serving as the Director of Literacy K-12 for a school district in Long Island, New York.  With nearly two decades in education, she has served as an assistant principal, elementary instructional coach, an elementary and middle school reading specialist, new teacher mentor coordinator K-12, creativity camp enrichment program supervisor, and a 2nd and 5th-grade classroom teacher.

Lauren is a lifelong learner whose professional passion is to empower teachers to lead so they can share their gifts with others and develop lifelong literacy practices in all learners. She has led teams developing 73 Units of Study in reading and writing K-5, has provided educators with job-embedded professional learning that supported a comprehensive approach to literacy and guided new teachers with acclimating to the culture and climate of a school system. She has organized Long Beach Literacy Day and has presented at local and national conferences including, ASCD, NCTE, #LBLit, LIASCD, Long Island Technology Summit, Reading Specialists Council of Suffolk, Long Island Language Arts Council, #NerdcampLI, and Literacy Matters Conferences.

Lauren enjoys sharing her learning through blogging on her own platform, is a contributing author in George Couros’ book Because of a Teacher, Lainie Rowell’s book Evolving With Gratitude, IGI Global’s Designing Effective Distance and Blended Learning Environments K-12, is an author for Edutopia, and a guest blogger for the Teach Better Team, Future Ready Schools, and Defined. Lauren appreciates sharing best literacy practices with colleagues, and wholeheartedly believes in developing powerful professional learning communities and networks that cultivate meaningful, relevant learning and growth.