New team members at Book Creator

We don't usually post blogs announcing new team members, but we're very excited about the latest batch of educators to join the Book Creator family, and couldn't help but share the news with you.

Faubs - District Growth Manager

Alyssa Faubion is best known as Farmer Faubs and we were absolutely thrilled when she joined us at the start of this year. She was already on our radar as a fantastic Book Creator Ambassador who has been diligently going around creating "Yeehaw moments" with teachers and students.

Now she's our District Growth Manager, which means she will be supporting schools that are piloting Book Creator by providing resources, guidance, and content to help them get the most out of their experience.

Faubs is also a whizz on social media - here she is interviewing some of her colleagues about their favourite Book Creator features whilst at FETC last month.

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A post shared by Farmer Faubs (@farmerfaubs)

Did you know? Faubs lives on a 100-acre family farm, played D1 basketball, and is an avid shoe collector.

Christina Mahar - K12 Curriculum Lead

Recruiting Christina feels extra special for me as she was one of the original Book Creator Ambassadors when I set up the program in 2015 - ten years ago! I had a vision that one day people like Christina would join our company - and it's now happening.

With nearly 24 years in education, Christina has served as a classroom teacher, ML teacher, ML coach, and most recently, a Global Studies Specialist, working closely with Dual Language Immersion schools and Spanish for Native/Heritage Speaker Students.

For over a decade, she integrated Book Creator into her classroom to engage students and meet their diverse needs. At the district level, she championed its use to enhance curriculum instruction, monitor student progress, foster parent engagement, and more.

Christina is our K12 Curriculum Lead and this means she collaborates with districts to implement Book Creator in ways that align with academic goals and enhance learning experiences. Her current focus is on developing resources tailored for special education and multilingual learners.

Did you know? Christina wrote us a letter many years ago to tell us about how Book Creator saved the day for one of her newcomer students.

@BookCreatorApp here is a view of my student's presentation. Wish I captured his proud smile. Your app is amazing! pic.twitter.com/qchc9pTHS2

— Christina Mahar (@ESLteachermahar) December 8, 2015

Katie Fielding - Education Content Manager

You've probably already heard of Katie because she joined the team back in summer 2024, but I wanted to include her here just in case you weren't aware!

Katie was already a superstar in the edtech world before joining Book Creator, as a keynote presenter, educator and advocate (see katiefielding.com!). We had over 2,000 applicants for the this role when it was advertised and still Katie was the obvious choice.

Katie spent 20 years as an educator in Northern Virginia, beginning as a Science Teacher, then transitioning into a Technology Coach, and ultimately serving as a STEM Specialist for her district. She has a passion for both accessibility and creativity in the classroom, and she feels like Book Creator seamlessly brings these two together.

As the Educational Content Manager, she creates and oversees the content featured in our Discover library, this website, and our social channels. From my perspective, she's made a massive impact in the short time she's been there - her most recent success was securing Book Creator the ISTE Seal of Alignment for Creativity!

She's also been busy creating super-helpful videos for our YouTube channel like this one ⤵️

Did you know? Katie is an avid traveller, and while she will explore new places for any reason—her biggest reason is... cheese 🧀

Shannon Miller - Future Ready Advocate

If you're a Teacher Librarian (and a lot of Book Creator teachers are) you'll no doubt have heard of Shannon McClintock Miller - she's the de facto Queen of Librarians!

Shannon is an international speaker, consultant and author. She is the preK-12 district librarian at Van Meter Community School District in Iowa. She also runs the award-winning blog 'The Library Voice'. On top of this, Shannon has numerous industry awards and was recently chosen as one of District Administration's Top 100 Education Influencers.

Shannon has joined the Book Creator team on a part-time basis to not only be our voice of Teacher Librarians, but also advise us on how Book Creator can continue to be a tool that advocates and nurtures "future ready skills" - the kind of skills we will need in a future where AI makes the job landscape unrecognisable from the jobs we have today.

Did you know? Shannon was instrumental in Book Creator winning our first AASL award for best website in 2018.

Here is Shannon with me and Jon Smith at FETC in 2020. ⤵️

Yes! Selfie with @shannonmmiller #FETC @DanKemp79 @BookCreatorApp pic.twitter.com/Sye9481tVi

— Jon Smith (@theipodteacher) January 14, 2020