Raymond Keith Gilyard (born 1952 in New York City) is a writer and American professor of English who teaches and researches in the fields of rhetoric, composition, literacy studies, sociolinguistics, and African American literature. Interested in the complex interplay among race, ethnicity, language, writing, and politics, his primary interest lies in identifying intersections of African American English and composing practices. Advocating African American English as a legitimate discourse, Gilyard has been a prominent voice in the movement to recognize ethnic and cultural discourses other than Standard English as valid. As a literary scholar and creative writer, his interests have been in the interplay among African American literature, rhetorical criticism, and bio-critical work. Education Gilyard received his Bachelor of Science degree from the City University CUNY Baccalaureate Program (1974), his Master of Fine Arts from Columbia University (1979), and his doctorate (EdD) from New York University (1985), this last degree under the mentorship of Gordon M. Pradl. His first college teaching appointment was at LaGuardia Community College in 1980. In 1981, Gilyard became a faculty member at Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York, where in 1986 he helped to launch the National Black Writers Conference series. He continued at Medgar Evers as a teacher and writing program administrator until 1993, when he took a position as professor of writing and English at Syracuse University. He directed Syracuse University's writing program from 1995-1999. Since 1999, he has been on the faculty of Penn State University, where he currently serves as the Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of English and African American Studies. Career Throughout his career, Gilyard has been actively involved in the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), including serving on the editorial board and the executive committee, and he served as NCTE president in 2011-2012 during its centennial. He has also worked significantly with the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC), the world's largest professional organization for researching and teaching composition, for which he served as Chair in 2000. Also notable among Gilyard's professional accomplishments are his receipt of two American Book Awards (1992) for his monographs Voices of the Self: A Study of Language Competence (1991) and John Oliver Killens: A Life of Black Literary Activism (2010); Faculty Honoree, City University of New York (1993); the Penn State Class of 1933 Medal of Distinction in the Humanities (2005); the Penn State Faculty Scholar Medal