Committees
Tomás Rivera Award Director

Nancy Valdez-Gainer
Nancy serves as the director of The Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children’s Book Award. She is currently a lecturer at Texas State University in the department of Curriculum & Instruction. She was born and raised in Austin, Texas and is a proud Chicana whose parents and grandparents were migrant farm workers. Nancy spent 18 years in Austin ISD as an elementary ESL, bilingual and a dual language teacher and as a Language Arts District Curriculum Specialist.Her research interests include culturally sustaining teaching, multicultural children’s literature, writing workshop and parent engagement.
National Committee




In Loving Memory

Regional Committee

Are you interested in Latino children’s and young adult books? Join the Regional Committee. Contact Director, Sandra Murillo-Sutterby at riverabookaward@txstate.edu
- Luz Alvarez-Simms
- Don Bos
- Meaghan Buchanan
- Sylvia Flores
- Juanita Galaviz
- Diana Garcia
- Jesse Gainer
- Mari Garza
- Gilberto Lara
- Blanca Loyal
- Miriam Martinez
- Kim Morgan-Benson
- Sharon O’Neal
- Susan Perez
- Joanne Salas
- Arlene Salazar
- Lucy Velez
- Graeme Wend-Walker