NM PED 2026 Literacy and Humanities Summer Conference

Whitney Whealdon is a career educator and learning architect with more than 20 years of experience spanning the classroom, state-level policy, and educational technology. As the Director of Learning Innovation at Learning Tapestry, she partners with organizations to design digital curriculum systems that align with the cognitive realities of how students actually learn. Whitney’s professional journey began in the classroom as a middle school English Language Arts teacher in Louisiana, where her excellence in instruction earned her the title of Louisiana Middle School Teacher of the Year in 2008. She later transitioned to the Louisiana Department of Education, spending over a decade leading transformative literacy initiatives. Most notably, she spearheaded the development of the ELA Guidebooks, a pioneering knowledge-building curriculum that has been adopted by the majority of Louisiana districts and implemented nationwide. A visionary in the intersection of literacy and technology, Whitney is the co-founder of Wonderwood, a knowledge-building app designed for families. She also authors The Secret Life of Learning on Substack, where she explores the hidden structures of the learning process and connects high-level pedagogical concepts to practical strategies for improving reading comprehension. Her work remains dedicated to creating curricula and tools that foster deep, durable knowledge for all learners.