Melissa Holmes

Affiliation

Kansas State University

Biography

Dr. Melissa Holmes is Director of Research, Evaluation, and Development at the Center for Intercultural and Multilingual Advocacy (CIMA) in the College of Education at Kansas State University. Her teaching and professional development efforts emphasize capacity building for effective educational practices with multilingual learners and families, literacy and language development, and applications of biography-driven pedagogy in U.S. and international settings. Her current research focuses on the use of instructional conversations to create culturally responsive/sustaining classroom ecologies. Dr. Holmes has co-authored Crossing the Vocabulary Bridge: Differentiated Strategies in Diverse Secondary Classrooms (2011) and Equitable and Inclusive Teaching for Diverse Learners with Disabilities: A Biography-Driven Approach (2023). She also has authored numerous book chapters and articles in journals such as American Secondary Education, Forum for International Research in Education, Journal of Bilingual Educational Research and Instruction, Journal of Curriculum and Instruction, Journal of Multicultural Education, Linguistics and Education, Multicultural Learning and Teaching, Teaching Education, and Teaching Education Quarterly.