Photo caption: St. Luke’s Monroe Campus President Don Seiple reads to children during a Read Across America event.
St. Luke’s University Health Network will once again participate in Read Across America, continuing its long-standing commitment to promoting early literacy and a lifelong love of reading among children in the communities we serve. Volunteers will read to children at 20 partner schools throughout the community during Read Across America week, which begins on the birthday of author Dr. Seuss, Monday, March 2.
Read Across America is an annual nationwide celebration dedicated to the joy and importance of reading for children. The initiative encourages early literacy and language development, helps children build imagination, comprehension and critical thinking skills, creates positive and engaging experiences around books, and supports educators and families in fostering a lifelong love of reading.
St. Luke’s partners in promoting literacy throughout the year include the Carbon County Community Foundation, which has supported the Dolly Parton Imagination Library and the evidence-based Reach Out and Read Program. Additionally, St. Luke’s collaborates with Reach Out and Read at Star Community Health Sigal Center as well as the Cops ‘n’ Kids Program in the Lehigh Valley.
Cops ‘n’ Kids is a community-based program that brings the gift of reading to children while encouraging positive relationships between children and law enforcement officers. Through literacy-focused outreach and events, Cops ’N Kids places books directly into the hands of children and creates welcoming environments that support early learning, trust-building and community connection.
Temple St. Luke’s School of Medicine students have been actively involved in this partnership, participating in Cops ‘n’ Kids events at the Reading Room, located within the Northampton Community College Fowler Family Southside Center, where they engage children through shared reading experiences. These efforts reflect St. Luke’s broader mission to address social determinants of health and support children and families beyond traditional clinical settings.
Beverly Bradley, President, Cops ‘n’ Kids Children’s Literacy Program, said, “We have found that this program has been as meaningful for those on the ‘giving’ end as it is for those on the ‘receiving’ end of our efforts. Together, we have made a difference, and our hope is that we will continue to do so. We all believe that being able to provide the tools for our community’s children to be successful will impact their lives and our community for many years to come.”
Judith Dickerson, Director of Cops ‘n’ Kids of Easton, added, “Reading shapes how well people learn, work and stay healthy and keeps them learning on their own.”
About St. Luke’s
Founded in 1872, St. Luke’s University Health Network (SLUHN) is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network with annual net revenue of more than $4.5 billion. With 23,000+ employees at 16 hospital campuses and 350+ outpatient sites, it is the Lehigh Valley’s biggest employer.
The Network’s service area includes 11 counties in two states: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey. St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital is based at the Bethlehem Campus.
Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke’s is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania. In partnership with Temple University, the Network established the Lehigh Valley’s first and only four-year medical school. It also operates the nation’s oldest continuously operated School of Nursing, established in 1884, and 60+ fully accredited graduate medical educational programs with 550+ residents and fellows.
In 2025, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recognized St. Luke’s ahead of nationally renowned Mayo Clinic and Houston Methodist as the nation’s three highest performing health systems for quality, safety and patient experience – affirming St. Luke’s status as a leader among the largest and best-known health care providers in the country.
St. Luke’s has been named a Leapfrog Group and Healthgrades Top Hospital and a Newsweek World’s Best Hospital. It is the only Lehigh Valley-based health care system to earn Medicare’s five-star ratings (the highest) for quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction. In 2025, the Network earned straight A’s from Leapfrog across all of its acute care hospitals. It has earned 100 Top Hospital designations from Premier 11 years in a row, including in 2021 when its flagship University Hospital was identified as THE #1 TEACHING HOSPITAL IN THE COUNTRY. Utilizing the Epic electronic medical record (EMR) system for both inpatient and outpatient services, the Network is a multi-year recipient of the Most Wired award recognizing the breadth of SLUHN’s information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information.
Information provided to TVL by:
Gary R. Blockus
