Jeanne Fain headshot

Jeanne Fain 

Grad Ed-English Language Learning

Program Director of ELL



Biography

Jeanne Gilliam Fain is a professor in the College of Education at Lipscomb University and she is the Director of MLL/ELL program. Her scholarship agenda includes a focus on Literacy, Literature, and Language Study in K-12 classrooms. She writes grants for school/university partnerships. She conducts research on critical conversations around global texts with multilingual learners and their families in local school partnerships. She served as past chair for two years (2020/2021 & 2019/2020) of the Notable in Children’s Language Arts Award and she currently serves as a co-chair of the Notable Books for a Global Society for the next three years. She is a literacy consultant and board member for the nonprofit, Youth Encouragement Services. She recently was the recipient of the 2021 Dean’s Award for her exceptional service through outstanding teaching, scholarship and service in the College of Education at Lipscomb University. She teaches literacy, global literature, language acquisition, culture & community, and research courses.

Jeanne has worked with three major and local partnerships including critical elements of a MNPS/Lipscomb ELL/MLL partnership, three partnerships at JE Moss Elementary (Camp Explore, Spark Grant Partnership, & Worlds of Words Teacher PD Partnership), and a recent Family Engage & Lit Partnership with Youth Encouragement Services. Implications for teacher education and multilingual learning were a part of these partnerships

Academic Degrees

Ph.D. Language, Reading, and Culture
College of Education, The University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona December 2003
Areas of concentration: Biliteracy Early Literacy
Dissertation title: Children’s Dialogue about Issues of Language Diversity and Culture. Kathy G. Short, Ph.D., Chair

M.Ed. Elementary Education
Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 1993
Areas of concentration: Bilingual Education, English as a Second Language

B.S., Elementary Education
Grand Canyon University, Phoenix, AZ 1990
Minor: Spanish

Academic Department

College of Education