Kurt Wootton is one of the founding directors of the ArtsLiteracy Project in the Education Department at Brown University. ArtsLiteracy’s work in urban schools with diverse populations led him to work increasingly in different countries in Latin America, particularly Brazil and Mexico. He is the co-director of Habla: The Center for Language and Culture in Mérida, Mexico, a combination of language school, education center, and community-based arts organization. With a specialty in creative literacy pedagogies, teacher professional development, and organizational change, he works internationally with teachers and administrators helping to design schools and organizations that are creative, meaningful, and welcoming places.

Previously he worked as an urban school reform consultant for the Providence School District and has led literacy initiatives for the Boston Public Schools, St. Paul Public Schools, Hartford Public Schools, Central Falls School District, Indian River School District, Providence Public Schools, and Plan Estratégico de Mérida, Mexico. Kurt has given keynote speeches in a variety of settings including for Cultural Agents at Harvard University, the Arts Education Partnership, the American Alliance for Theater Education, ArtsPowered Schools, SmART Schools, The Learning Alliance, The University of Northern Colorado, Florida Atlantic University, the University of Maryland, and Senac University in Sao Paulo. He writes about education on his blog here, at The Huffington Post, as well as for professional education journals.

His book A Reason to Read: Linking Literacy and the Arts co-written with Eileen Landay is available at here at Harvard Education Press and on Amazon.

His home is in Mérida, México where he lives with his wife, Marimar, and two children, Sandra and Luis.