AAAS Alum is Making Efforts to Improve Literacy
Rick Tamno’s academic experience inspired him to address the school-to-prison pipeline
Rick Tamno, a 2017 graduate of the Department of African American and Africana Studies (AAAS), knows from firsthand experience how important it is to be able to read and write—he didn’t speak English when he moved from Cameroon to Frederick, Md. at the age of 12.
But, that’s not the only reason Tanmo decided to create Readers All—a nonprofit that seeks to end the school-to-prison pipeline through programs that improve literacy, provide STEM education, and help students visualize their potential futures. Tamno’s time in AAAS inspired him to take the leap, too.
“I took an elective class called ‘Public Policy and the Black Community,’ and in it I learned about slavery in the United States and the policies that were implemented to keep Black people behind. Since I didn’t grow up here, I didn’t know the history,” recalled Tamno, who was a government and politics major at the time. “When I switched majors, I learned about the importance of mentoring, and of Black leaders like the Black Panthers giving back to their communities. My major really helped me see why this work is so needed, and I thought I could create something to make an impact, too.”
During the gap year Tamno took between finishing his undergraduate degree and returning to UMD to pursue a master’s degree in public policy, he reached out to numerous reading/writing teachers and specialists in the DMV area asking if they could help him get his literacy-focused give-back program—which would also double as his graduate school project—off the ground.
Laurie Moloney, a Certified Academic Language Therapist, answered Tamno’s call. She not only agreed to co-found the organization with him, but also to develop the program’s curriculum and provide instruction.
“She believed in me and I believed in her,” Tamno recalled of their initial Starbucks meeting.
Through Launch UMD, a crowdfunding platform to help Maryland community members raise money so that their ideas and passions can take flight, Tamno went on to raise $20,000 for the program while pursuing his master’s degree. And, by the time he was wrapping up said degree, he and Moloney were ready to launch the Saturday Literacy Enrichment Project, known today as Readers All.
Tamno, Moloney and 15 UMD teaching assistants started visiting Springhill Lake Elementary School in Greenbelt, Md. from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on Saturdays in early 2020, working with approximately 25 5- to 8-year-old students on reading, writing, spelling, and handwriting skills.
“Everyone—the kids, the parents, the principal—loved it. Then COVID came, and then I graduated that May,” Tamno said.
Still, Tamno’s commitment to serving the underserved lived on. He went on to work as a federal policy associate for the Children’s Defense Fund—a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization rooted in the Civil Rights and Women’s movements that works to amplify the power of youth and families through advocacy, community organizing, direct service, and public policy—and, in 2023, invested his own money to take the steps to restore Readers All, including hiring a lawyer to get it officially established as a nonprofit organization.
In 2024, Tamno and Laurie resumed working with Springhill Lake Elementary School, this time adding to the mix of offerings STEM curricula; opportunities for students to visit area universities, including UMD; and providing some families with their own bookshelves and culturally responsive books.
“If we had the funding, every kid in that elementary school would have a library of books written by authors that look like them, and that show them ‘oh, I can be a doctor,’ or ‘oh, I can be a lawyer,’” said Tamno. “These are things that make a huge difference in a child’s education because when they come home, if they don’t have books, they are going to play games, or go out, and there are risks with that.”
Further demonstrating his commitment to improving literacy and, in turn, dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline, Tamno will be completing a Georgetown University Nonprofit Management Executive Certificate program this spring, and then begin pursuing a Ph.D. in literary studies from the University of Pennsylvania this fall.
Published on Thu, Mar 27, 2025 - 12:44PM