71. Lisa Shotts with Gaining Ground Literacy

<p>Many of you have asked to hear from people who have started a non-profit! This week, you'll be hearing from Lisa Shotts, Co-Founder of Gaining Ground Literacy.</p> <p>Lisa has a heart for helping and a mind for data-driven results. Her considerable time spent in the classroom as a teacher -over twenty-five years – provided insight into the importance of having access to summer reading material.</p> <p>As a former instructional reading coach for a local school, she could see the notable digression students experienced in reading skills over the summer break. She could also see that it boiled down to opportunity, or lack there-of, in economically disadvantaged communities. In these areas, also referred to as reading deserts, students simply didn’t have access to books or reading material.</p> <p>That’s when she and her colleague Kirby Mackenzie realized that they had the power to make a simple change that would provide a lasting and life-long impact. That simple change of getting books into the hands of children in reading deserts has grown into a local non-profit known as Gaining Ground Literacy.</p>