PROFESSIONAL HISTORY
I'm delighted to share my 40-plus year professional journey with you! I have a doctorate in Reading, Language, and Learning Disabilities from Harvard University, where I focused on the diagnosis and correction of reading difficulties, creating a test of phonemic awareness for my dissertation. I was honored to study with Dr. Jeanne Chall and was her research assistant on various readability projects before and after graduation.
I've been fortunate to have professional experience in education as a classroom teacher, reading specialist, higher education faculty, readability expert, researcher, and educational consultant.
I've maintained a private practice since 1988 as an educational consultant to schools, hospitals, advocates, attorneys, and families and have conducted hundreds of comprehensive educational evaluations for children, adolescents, and adults. As an assessment expert, I've testified at hearings and mediation sessions.
I was a senior research scientist at EDC in Massachusetts, where I was employed for 12 years. At EDC, I was the principal investigator of a four-year federally-funded research study to determine the effect of a writing curriculum on the writing outcomes of fourth and fifth grade students in 56 treatment and control schools. I also served as the project director of a four-year federally-funded study to implement a model of small group differential reading instruction for the lowest performing readers in an urban middle school. In addition, I provided technical assistance to New York state education leaders to help build capacity around evidence-based reading instruction. As part of the National Comprehensive Center’s Adolescent Literacy Work Group led by Dr. Joseph Torgesen, I also identified and reviewed research to create an annotated bibliography and guidance document for effective leadership in adolescent literacy programs.
Prior to my work at EDC, I was employed as the director of the department of Reading and Educational Resources at Franciscan Hospital for Children in Boston, where I conducted educational evaluations as part of multidisciplinary teams and trained and supervised staff.
I was also chair of the International Literacy Association’s Special Interest Group on Readability from 1997 to 2014 and co-chair since 2016. I frequently present on literacy and readability at local and national conferences. A curriculum vita with more details is available on request.
I've been fortunate to have professional experience in education as a classroom teacher, reading specialist, higher education faculty, readability expert, researcher, and educational consultant.
I've maintained a private practice since 1988 as an educational consultant to schools, hospitals, advocates, attorneys, and families and have conducted hundreds of comprehensive educational evaluations for children, adolescents, and adults. As an assessment expert, I've testified at hearings and mediation sessions.
I was a senior research scientist at EDC in Massachusetts, where I was employed for 12 years. At EDC, I was the principal investigator of a four-year federally-funded research study to determine the effect of a writing curriculum on the writing outcomes of fourth and fifth grade students in 56 treatment and control schools. I also served as the project director of a four-year federally-funded study to implement a model of small group differential reading instruction for the lowest performing readers in an urban middle school. In addition, I provided technical assistance to New York state education leaders to help build capacity around evidence-based reading instruction. As part of the National Comprehensive Center’s Adolescent Literacy Work Group led by Dr. Joseph Torgesen, I also identified and reviewed research to create an annotated bibliography and guidance document for effective leadership in adolescent literacy programs.
Prior to my work at EDC, I was employed as the director of the department of Reading and Educational Resources at Franciscan Hospital for Children in Boston, where I conducted educational evaluations as part of multidisciplinary teams and trained and supervised staff.
I was also chair of the International Literacy Association’s Special Interest Group on Readability from 1997 to 2014 and co-chair since 2016. I frequently present on literacy and readability at local and national conferences. A curriculum vita with more details is available on request.
