Rate My Professor Benita Brooks

Dr. Brooks specializes in literacy education, with research centered on well-being literacy—a framework encompassing knowledge, vocabulary, awareness, reflection, and action—as a transformative tool in education. Her investigations explore teacher preparation programs' role in equipping educators with communication skills for well-being promotion, integration of well-being literacy into high school English curricula, and Black adolescent girls' conceptualization of transformative leadership through this lens. She has secured over $8.6 million in grant funding and earned awards including the David Payne Academic Community Engagement Award (Sam Houston State University, 2022), College of Education Inclusion Award (2020), and Thomas Wilson Award for Civic and Community Service (UNLV, 2010). Key publications feature the co-authored book When Textbooks Fall Short: New Ways, New Texts, New Sources of Information in the Content Areas (Heinemann, 2010) and articles such as “Cultivating a University-Community Partnership through an Innovative After-School Academic Program” (The Texas Forum of Teacher Education, 2021) and “Exploring Cultural Responsiveness among White School Principals in Rural Schools with High-Performing African American Readers” (Journal of School Leadership, 2019). Dr. Brooks has demonstrated significant impact through leadership roles as Vice President of the Nevada Association of Teacher Educators, Recruitment and Retention Officer for AERA’s SIG 41 on Experiential Education and Community Engagement, and Founding Editor of READ: An Online Journal for Literacy Educators (2015-2020).