Ainsleigh Thomas Gaskins

Office: 3600 West Broad Street, Suite 669
Phone: (804) 827-1934
Fax: (804) 828-7539
Email Ainsleigh

After graduating from James Madison University in 2001 with a major in Psychology and a minor in Early Childhood Education, I was employed with Hanover County Schools as a Head Start teacher. Throughout the five years that I taught Head Start, I attended many workshops and conferences related to early literacy development and became very interested in the role that preschool teachers and families play in children’s later reading success. After my fourth year in the classroom, I started graduate school at Virginia Commonwealth University to earn an M.Ed. in Reading. It was during one of my first Reading classes that I learned about Early Reading First. In the summer of 2006, I joined the Richmond Early Reading First team as a Mentor Specialist, and in May of 2007 I began working as a Literacy Coach on the second ERF grant at VCU, Partnership for Excellence in Early Language and Literacy Skills (PEELLS). I consider this work a marriage of my two passions: early childhood education and reading, and I love helping early childhood teachers become stronger literacy practitioners.