Writing

Therese Gleason (Carr) is author of two poetry chapbooks: Libation (2006), selected by Kwame Dawes as co-winner of the South Carolina Poetry Initiative Chapbook Competition, and Matrilineal (Finishing Line Press, 2021). A Pushcart and Best of the Net nominee, her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in 32 Poems, Rattle, Indiana Review, The Worcester Review, America, New Ohio Review, San Pedro River Review, Literary Mama, Psaltery & Lyre, Halfway Down the Stairs, Painted Bride Quarterly, SWWIM Every Day, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Plainsongs, Limestone, Off the Margins, Mass Poetry’s Hard Work of Hope series and Network, the newsletter of the International Women’s Writing Guild. A literacy teacher and MFA candidate at Pacific University, she lives with her spouse and three children in Worcester, MA.

Language/Literacy Teaching, Tutoring, and Educational Consulting

Therese has twenty-five years of experience as an educator. Before returning to the classroom in 2014, she spent over a decade working in the field of educational research at the local, state, and federal level, writing and managing federal grants to develop interactive large-scale and classroom-based assessments designed to reduce barriers to testing and increase educational access and equity for all learners, particularly culturally and linguistically diverse and neurodiverse students. A facilitator for the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s Sheltered English Immersion Endorsement (SEI) course for teachers, she has taught English composition, creative writing, ESL, Spanish, and literacy to learners in settings including universities, community colleges, adult and community education, and public and private K-12 schools. She holds Massachusetts educator licensure in Spanish (K-6), English as a Second Language (K-6), and endorsements for Bilingual Education and Sheltered English Immersion. A Wilson Dyslexia Therapist with Level II Certification, in Wilson Reading System, she currently teaches multi-sensory structured literacy as a reading interventionist for children with learning differences. She has also completed over 40 hours of graduate coursework in Educational Psychology, Research, and Literacy at the University of South Carolina and Fitchburg State University.

Community Service

Therese is a board member of the Worcester County Poetry Association, and Chair of the Advisory Board for the Worcester Clemente Course in the Humanities, an award-winning college-level seminar for highly motivated low-income adults seeking to build better lives for themselves, their families, and their communities. She has volunteered her grant-writing expertise resulting in funding for two projects from local foundations: a Worcester Arts Council grant providing a weeklong residency by Crocodile River Music and African Arts in Education at St. Peter Central Catholic, where she teaches, as well as a Creative Engagement Grant from the Greater Worcester Community Foundation awarded to the Worcester County Poetry Association to amplify the voices of diverse creatives in the community and increase audience engagement.