Hi, I’m Joanne Kilgour Dowdy

When I was a very young student at Newtown Girls R.C. School in Port of Spain, Trinidad, I had the great fortune to study with Mrs. Walker, Mrs. Shephard, and Miss O’Brien. These women featured in my seventh book, In the Public Eye (2009) and continue to be the beacons of light on my educational path. I was a Professor of Adolescent/Adult Literacy at Kent State University in the School of Teaching, Learning, and Curriculum Studies. My major research interests included women and literacy, drama in education, and video technology in qualitative research instruction. My published research includes documentation of the experiences of Black women involved in education from adult basic literacy to higher education. The American Educational Research Association Narrative and Research SIG awarded the book, Ph.D. Stories: Conversations with My Sisters, the Outstanding Book Award for 2009. My formal performance career did not stop when I left The Juilliard School in 1987. Rather, I took a long time to formulate a one woman show called Between Me and the Lord, which I performed in Atlanta, Trinidad, and Cambridge, USA in 2000. The second installation of the play was presented at Kent State University in March, 2009. Between Me and The Lord 2 was an expanded document that represents five chapters of my life. In April 2010, I was invited by Georgia State University to present at the Research Wednesday Speaker Series. The Speaker Series is designed to give participants an opportunity to hear innovative and thought provoking speakers who represent cutting edge research at the state and national levels. My first children’s book is about Olympic athlete Lennox Kilgour, my father. It has been translated into two other languages: Spanish and Haitian Krewol.