Dr. Shirley Heath

A Southerner who developed an early curiosity about different voices in life and in literature, Dr. Shirley Heath has examined the learning outcomes that result when youth living in under-resourced communities participate in planning, creating, producing, and critiquing products and performances.

Heath is the author of Words at work and play: Three Decades in Families and Communities (2012) and Ways with Words: Language, Life, and Work in Communities and Classrooms (Cambridge University Press, 1983/1996). She has taught at universities throughout the world, most notably Stanford University and Brown University, and as Visiting Research Professor at King's College, University of London. Of particular note are Heath's publications written for community advocates for creating environments in which the arts and sciences are both viewed as essential to building highly effective learning environments. Her resource guide and prize-winning documentary ArtShow (2000) features young leaders in four interracial and cross-class community arts organizations in the United States.