Throughout her 25 years as a speech-language pathologist, Jennifer Stone, MS saw the power of books to connect families with young children with language, particularly in her work in early intervention. During the early part of her career in upstate New York, Stone noticed that many of her young clients lived in homes with books that bore a sticker signifying that they had been gifted from the area’s early literacy coalition. Stone began volunteering with the group, helping to provide books to families and learning about book gifting.

After moving to North Carolina’s Pitt County and starting a private practice providing speech and language services, she began going into homes with no books and meeting families who did not know the value of reading aloud with their children. She drew upon the lessons she learned in New York and founded and ran Books From Birth (now ReadENC), a community-based book-gifting organization. She remembers being appalled when a potential donor said, “Well, Jennifer, you can give them books,  but you can't make them read.” She says that at the time, she didn't understand the connections between racism and literacy and notes that she is still learning actively about those connections now. But what she knew from her professional experience was the power of picture books to nurture children’s language development.

That comment spurred her desire to locate research to back up her experience. Her success in launching the literacy coalition was heavily based on data and research. Yet when she searched for information to confirm her experiences with book gifting, she came up empty-handed. She wanted to help document the evidence of success of these programs, so she applied to and was accepted into the UNC School of Medicine’s PhD program in the Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences, where she is in her fourth year. Her studies focus on critical theories, emergent literacy, and community literacy.

In her dissertation, which she is currently working on, Stone analyzes the books provided by Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library (DPIL), a book gifting program that mails free books to children in participating areas from birth until they begin school. Stone’s research explores the DPIL’s idea that all of the children in an area are expected to arrive at kindergarten with the same library of books. “I'm curious about what messages are conveyed in those books,” says Stone. “Rather than thinking that I need to prove that book gifting works, which was my original impetus in my doctoral studies, I'm curious about the actual impacts of giving books out in large quantities to families.” She is especially interested in the Imagination Library because of its rapid growth and adoption into policy by states, currently numbering at 13, that are funding through legislation these book gifting efforts.

“When all members of a community share the same set of 60 books, which is what happens with the Imagination Library, it's important to make sure that we're challenging any biases in those books and including any people who might be missing,” says Stone.

Because of that work, Stone has been awarded this year's James J. Gallagher Dissertation Award from the UNC Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute (FPG). The award—which honors the legacy of the late Jim Gallagher, FPG director from 1970 to 1987—provides a $4,500 stipend for a work-in-progress that is reflective of Gallagher's legacy of advancing policy and practice that supports children and families. Stone says that she is honored that her colleagues support her in this way and feels validated and bolstered in her efforts.

In the Gallagher Award recommendation letter she wrote for Stone, Karen Erickson, PhD, director of UNC’s Center for Literacy and Disability Studies and professor in the Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences, comments on Stone’s strong potential to contribute to the literature regarding inequitable literacy access for young children, families, communities, and society. Erickson notes that Stone’s work will “help policymakers, book-gifting organizations like the DPIL, and practitioners ask the right questions and establish informed criteria for the books they select and distribute.”

Stone expresses her gratitude to Erickson for her mentorship saying, “I'm 52 years old―what 52-year-old woman has a mentor who supports everything she does?” Stone embraces the ambiguity of not knowing what work she will pursue when she graduates in 2024. She is most interested in understanding the lived experiences of parents and families and communicating their experiences to others.

She hopes that her research helps communities understand that the content of books matters, as it impacts people's perceptions of what reading is and who readers are. “When all members of a community share the same set of 60 books, which is what happens with the Imagination Library, it's important to make sure that we're challenging any biases in those books and including any people who might be missing,” says Stone.

If you’d like to support the James J. Gallagher Dissertation Award Fund, you can do so with a secure gift online.

Previous Award Winners

Read about previous award winners:

2022  |   Kelsey Thompson receives 2022 James J. Gallagher Dissertation Award
2021  |   Sarah Pedonti receives 2021 FPG James J. Gallagher Dissertation Award
2020  |   Research on Teacher Perspectives Earns Jordan McNeill the 2020 James J. Gallagher Dissertation Award