The theme for the 59th annual conference of the Association of Literacy Educators and Researchers was Making a Difference in Our Diverse Communities. The meeting took place in Costa Mesa, California in 2015. In the first section of the Yearbook, Dr. J. Helen Perkins's presidential address shared the story of her journey as an educator and how it influenced her awareness of the importance of social justice in teacher education. Then, in "Preparing Educators Who Make a Difference in Our Diverse Communities," Dr. Patricia A. Edwards wrote, "Teachers have a responsibility to all their students to ensure that all have an equal opportunity to achieve to the best of their abilities." These two articles, along with the other featured speakers and award winners, described the need for teacher educators and researchers to rise to the challenge of preparing the next generation to embrace diversity and implement best practices in literacy instruction that will meet the needs of ALL learners. In section two, the authors explained how their research on web tools, drama and play, intervention strategies, and curriculum materials impacted children, adolescents, and families. Section three showcases the research from teacher leaders, English language learners, and literacy coaches and its impact on adult learning. Section four focuses on the impact research has on teacher education programs. All of the articles within this Yearbook represent a sampling of the sessions presented at the conference. After a peer-review process for conference acceptance, the ensuing articles underwent an additional round of peer review for acceptance in the Yearbook. The articles reflect the theme and broaden it in terms of cultures to include not only cultures of ethnicity, race, gender, politics and economics, but also cultures of new literacies and technologies. The authors address both research and practice providing additional opportunities for making a difference in diverse communities. [For the Thirty-Seventh Yearbook, see ED594526.]