Barbara Burger

Barbara  Burger is the ESL Coordinator for the Family Start Learning Center (FAST), a community based literacy program under the leadership of the UIC Center for Literacy. She has been with UIC Center for Literacy since 2005.

Burger is interested in intergenerational literacy and family literacy impacting the lives of children and adults. Parents are better equipped to support their children’s education if they become part of the learning process. She leads a teaching team that helps parents of Head Start children learn conversational English with the same topics that their children are currently learning. Parents are supported as the first and most important teacher in the lives of their children and build confidence to support the education of their children.

Burger received her BS degree in Trade-Technical Education from Ferris State University and her Masters of Adult Education from National-Louis University. She spent 5 years in vocational education as the Director of Education for the Printing Industry of IL/IN and the past 23 years working with adult English language learners.