North End Fest

Workshops and events offered through North End Leadership Academy.

Building literacy skills through cultural exploration. For more information visit our Facebook Page North End Leadership Academy.

Leadership Academy

About the North End Leadership Academy.

The People that Do this Cheryl M. Faries has a BA in Public Administration, MA Education, Counseling with a Multi Cultural emphasis from San Diego State and a Certificate in Non Profit Management from Iowa State.

Upon returning to Waterloo in 1996, Cheryl got a contract from the Community Foundation to organize the Maples Neighborhood Association. She has worked for the Waterloo Human Rights Commission leading "Study Circles on Race",Family and Children's Council, The UNI COPC program as Coordinator, New City Ministries as Interim Director, and CCCP (the Hub) as Program Developer. She has also helped to develop and organize the North end Arts and Music fest, the Women's Empowerment Program, and the Waterloo Neighborhood Coalition. As a member of the Community Partnership for the Protection of Children (CCCP) she was instrumental in the development of the Hub. Cheryl helped begin Cedar Valley Citizens for Undoing Racism, and currently holds the position of Co Chair.

Shuaib J. Meacham is an Associate Professor and Research Fellow of with the Center of Educational Transformation at the University of Northern Iowa. He is an educator who engages and collaborates with community organizations to foster high impact learning experiences. His approach to learning involves forming collaborative partnerships between community organizations and his university classes to maximize the learning for both. He is presently collaborating with the North End Leadership Academy implementing a program called "Literacy Through Hip-Hop. He has also collaborated with KBBG Radio 88.1 FM, integrating their show, "Zoe's Book Club" into his 2014 Children's Literature Course. He specializes in Language and Literacy as well as cultural issues in Teaching and Teacher Education. He is a 2003 Post-Doctoral Fellow of the National Academy of Education and the Spencer Foundation for the Hip-Hop Literacy Project. He was also a member of the publications and standing committee of research for the National Council of Teachers of English.

His teaching and research are in the areas of literacy, teacher education, and multicultural education with a specialization in theories and practices of literacy in culturally diverse settings within the context of community engagement and publicly engaged scholarship. His dissertation was a qualitative study of the intercultural connections, and literacy learning that takes place during literacy instruction in culturally diverse classrooms.

He has a B.A. in Creative Writing and Literature, and an M.A. in Reading and Literacy from the University of Michigan. He holds a Ph.D. in Educational Studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has been a high school drama teacher, a graduate coordinator of Minority Programs at the Departmental level, and a graduate research assistant.

He is past awardee of the Spencer Foundation Pre-Doctoral and Dissertation Fellowships as well as a former member of the Steering Committee for Holmes Group Holmes Scholar program. He is presently engaged in a program of research publication looking at Hip-Hop Literacy, the literacy practice and knowledge dispositions of hip-hop music and culture, and the ways to increase the achievement levels of urban students.

Sohyun "Soh" Meacham is an Assistant Professor at the University of Northern Iowa. Her teaching and research are in the areas of literacy, instructional technology, and early childhood education, with a specialization in oral language development, vocabulary instruction, and content-area literacy. Soh's current projects include STEM Integration in Literacy, Multicultural Children's eBook Authoring, and Teachers' Language Use. In addition, she is collaborating with Dr. Shuaib J. Meacham in Hip-Hop and Higher Education Project. These projects involve teachers and children in private and public schools in Cedar Falls and Waterloo.

Soh has taught over the past 15 years in early childhood and in higher education, coached early childhood teachers, and conducted professional development workshops. Soh has a Ph.D. in Literacy Education and a B.A. and an M.A.T. in Early Childhood Education

Celeste Bembry is a servant of the Lord, Jesus Christ. She serves UNI as a recruitment coordinator for College of Humanities, Arts and Sciences...and is an American music concert artist.