A lifelong educator, Sarah Tantillo is the creator of THE LITERACY COOKBOOK (www.literacycookbook.com) and author of THE LITERACY COOKBOOK: A Practical Guide to Effective Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Listening Instruction (2012), LITERACY AND THE COMMON CORE: Recipes for Action (2014), and USING GRAMMAR TO IMPROVE WRITING: Recipes for Action (2018). Sarah consults in NJ and nationally with schools (esp. urban) seeking to improve student achievement. Her latest book is HIT THE DRUM: An Insider's Account of How the Charter School Idea Became a National Movement (2019). Sarah taught high school English and Humanities in both suburban and urban New Jersey public schools for 14 years, including seven years at the high-performing North Star Academy Charter School of Newark, where she chaired the Humanities Dept.. She also founded and directed the New Jersey Charter School Resource Center from 1996-1999 and the New Jersey Charter Public Schools Association from 1999-2003. She consulted F/T from 2007-2019, then for 3 years worked as Managing Director of Humanities at Great Oaks Legacy Charter Schools, then in 2022 pivoted back into F/T consulting. Sarah coaches K-12 schools on literacy instruction, curriculum development, leadership, culture-building, mental wellness, and strategic planning. She has studied at Princeton (B.A. ’87), Harvard (M.Ed. ’91), Johns Hopkins (M.A. ’95), and Rutgers (Ed.D. ’01). Her dissertation was on culture formation in charter schools. She currently writes two blogs: "The Literacy Cookbook" and "Only Good Books." In 2021, Sarah became a certified energy healer and intuitive coach through the nonprofit Shine Your Light. Since 2013, Sarah has been an avid Trustee of Princeton-Blairstown Center, a nonprofit that serves young people, primarily from historically marginalized communities, by nurturing their social-emotional skills through experiential, environmental, and adventure-based programming.