UNDERSTAND ME! Supporting the Learning Needs of Diverse Gifted Students

Dr. Erinn Floyd serves as Director of Professional Learning for the National Association for Gifted Children. She is the former State Director of Gifted Education for the Alabama Department of Education. With over twenty-six (26) years of experience, she has conducted school improvement, strategic instruction, and gifted identification training for educators and school leaders in Alabama, nationally, and internationally. Dr. Floyd’s scholarship and research focus on racial equity in gifted education, educator efficacy, equity and diversity training for educators, mentoring, identification of gifted African American students, and rural African American gifted students. She has published book chapters and articles, including, Mentoring at Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs): Theory, Design, Practice, and Impact (2018), Gifted Children of Color Around the World: Diverse Needs, Exemplary Practices and Directions for the Future, Advances in Race and Ethnicity in Education (2016), Young, Triumphant, and Black: Overcoming the Tyranny of Segregated and Desegregated Minds (2013), Special Populations in Gifted Education: Understanding Our Most Able Students from Diverse Backgrounds (2008), and Using Picture Book Biographies to Nurture the Talents of Young African American Students (Gifted Child Today, 2010). Dr. Floyd is an inaugural recipient of the Dr. Mary Frasier Teacher Scholarship for Diverse Talent Development. Dr. Floyd and her devoted husband of twelve (13) years are the proud parents of two gifted children, a son, (12) and a daughter (8).

Dr. Kristina H. Collins is a graduate of the The University of Georgia, where she earned a Ph.D. in educational psychology. She also holds an Ed.S. in educational psychology from the The University of Georgia, a M.S.Ed. in mathematics from Jacksonville State University, a B.S. in engineering from the University of Alabama, and a Military Science diploma in cryptology from the United States Navy. Dr. Collins has many years of experience with STEM teaching and leading in Title I middle schools and high schools. Her professional certifications include technology education, AP computer science, and educational leadership/administration. At Texas State University, she teaches courses related to talent development and gifted education.