About Us

When Dea Paoletta Auray was a first-year teacher, she quickly realized that liking to write and being able to teach kids to write were two very different skills. Struggling with managing a classroom of writers and having time for meaningful conferences with all students was just half the battle. Being able to offer students productive feedback that helped her young authors grow as writers were equally as challenging—looking around at what veteran teachers were doing only proved the point. Most teachers were working very hard at teaching writing, but very few were having any level of success. It was this reality that lead Dea to partner with her grade level mentor, veteran teacher and author Barbara Mariconda, and launch the Empowering Writers' approach in their own classrooms and then throughout Mill Hill School in Fairfield, CT. As students became confident, enthusiastic writers, teachers began to take notice.

But when Mill Hill achieved a 45-point increase in their state writing scores, educators across the state and beyond clamored to discover the secret of their success. Barbara and Dea began to offer professional development to share their high-impact methodologies centered around the specific skills good writers need, and Empowering Writers was born. Today, our dynamic team of highly-committed professionals continues to transform writing instruction across the U.S., Canada, and the world.

Our intensive, teacher-friendly workshops empower K-8 educators in narrative, informational, opinion, and argument writing, as well as literary analysis tasks that meet the latest state and national standards. In addition to a full line of traditional comprehensive print resources for classroom use, The Hub offers educators a full-service digital option with a look at the methodology applied in real classrooms, video tips and strategies from master teachers, instructional PowerPoints, content that is ready to present directly to students. Advice and instruction from the experts are just a keystroke away.