READING HALL OF FAME - Key Persons
Barbara Taylor has been active in reading research and outreach to schools throughout her career as a professor at the University of Minnesota. In addition to developing the Early Intervention in Reading model, Taylor has published widely on reading comprehension, effective reading instruction, and successful school-wide reading improvement in journals, including Reading Research Quarterly, Elementary School Journal, and The Reading Teacher. In 2010 she was awarded the Oscar Causey Award for Distinguished Contributions to Reading Research from the National Reading Conference, the latest in a long line of awards.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Living
- Bishop, Rudine Sims
Job Titles:
- Emeritus Professor of Literacy Studies in Education
Colin Harrison is Emeritus Professor of Literacy Studies in Education at the University of Nottingham. He was a secondary school English teacher for seven years, and served on the national council of NATE, the English teachers organisation, for ten years. He left full-time school teaching to work on the Effective Use of Reading project, during which time he chaired the Evaluators Group at the Schools Council, the agency that funded that project. Between 1989 and 2007 he directed fourteen national or international research projects on assessment in reading, most of which were government funded. He has been involved in a number of transatlantic studies of computer use, and pan-European studies of technology in schools. He was a founder editor of the Journal of Research in Reading, was President of the UK Reading Association 1990-1, chaired the Technology and Literacy Committee of the International Reading Association from 2001-4, and has directed six national evaluations of technology and teacher development for the UK government. But his work has not only been at policy level: between 1980 and 2010 there were only five years in which he did not teach at least once a week in a local school, wherever possible bringing together technology and literacy development. From 2007-2016 he worked with elementary schools in Nottingham, researching and teaching innovation education and Internet skills.
David Reinking is semi-retired, currently with courtesy appointment as an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Language and Literacy Education at the University of Georgia. Previously, he was a Distinguished Professor of Education at Clemson University. His scholarship focuses on understanding the relation between digital technologies and literacy and how that understanding informs instruction. In classrooms, he conducts formative experiments to study how valued pedagogical goals can be achieved through the integration of digital technologies into instruction. He has promoted formative experiments and other design-based approaches to education research as an alternative to conventional experimental and naturalistic approaches. He co-authored a widely used book explicating those approaches entitled On Formative and Design Experiments (Teachers College Press, 2008). His work has been published widely in highly regarded journals and scholarly books, and it has received international attention through projects and invited talks in countries such as Colombia, Finland, Italy, the Netherlands, Singapore, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. From 2001-2007, he served as Co-Editor of Reading Research Quarterly, the leading research journal for literacy research and one of the most widely circulated and influential research journals in education. From 1994 to 2000 he was Editor of the Journal of Literacy Research, another highly regarded research journal. He also served as lead editor for the Handbook of Literacy and Technology, which was awarded special recognition by the National Reading Conference and the American Library Association. His research has been supported by substantial federal funding. For example, From 1992-1997 he was a principal investigator at the National Reading Research Center funded by the U.S. Office of Education. From 2005-2008, he was a co-principal investigator on a three-year project investigating adolescents' reading comprehension on the Internet. He is a past-president (2009-10) of the Literacy Research Association), a leading professional organization for literacy researchers from which he received the Albert Kingston Award for lifetime service. He also founded a study abroad program, now in its 20th year. That program provides a cross-cultural experience for pre-service teachers who who work with teachers and students in Italian schools while living with Italian host families. That program received the 2008 Andrew Heiskell Award in the study abroad category from the influential Institute of International Education.
Diane Lapp, EdD is a Distinguished Professor of Education at San Diego State University where her work continues to be very applied to schools. Diane is also an instructional coach at Health Science Middle School and Health Sciences High and Middle College. Throughout her career Diane has taught in elementary, middle, and high schools. Her major areas of research and instruction regard issues related to the planning and assessment of very intentional instruction and learning.
Diane has authored, coauthored and edited numerous articles, columns, texts, handbooks and children's materials on instruction, assessment, and literacy related issues. She has conducted many professional trainings addressing topics related to differentiated learning, purposeful instruction and assessment, the gradual release of instructional responsibility, close reading, classroom collaboration and conversation, balanced literacy, and writing across the curriculum. Her many educational awards include being named the Distinguished Research Lecturer from SDSU's Graduate Division of Research, IRA's 1996 Outstanding Teacher Educator of the Year, and IRA's 2011 John Manning Award recipient for her work in public schools. A member of both the California and the International Reading Halls of Fame she can be reached at lapp@mail.sdsu.edu. Follow her on twitter @lappsdsu.
Job Titles:
- Member of the School Board
Donald J. Leu is currently a member of the School Board in Blaine, Washington. He is also Emeritus Endowed Chair in Literacy and Technology at the University of Connecticut. He held a joint appointment in Curriculum and Instruction and Educational Psychology in the Neag School of Education and directed the New Literacies Research Lab. He is a former member of the Board of Directors of the International Literacy Association and a past President of the Literacy Research Association. A graduate of Michigan State, Harvard, and Berkeley, Don's work focused on the new skills and strategies required to read, write, and learn with Internet technologies and the best instructional practices that prepared students for these new literacies. He was a Principal Investigator on a number of federal research grants including: Factors Affecting Comprehension by Teens During Online in Science, Online Reading Comprehension Assessment, The New Literacies of Online Reading Comprehension, NAEP Secondary Reanalysis, and CTELL. His work has been funded by the U.S. Department of Education, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, the North Central Educational Research Lab, the Carnegie Corporation, the Institute for Education Sciences, PBS and the Annenberg Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Australian Council of Educational Research, and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). He edited the Handbook of Research on New Literacies (Erlbaum) with Colin Lankshear, Julie Coiro, and Michele Knobel.
Dr. Denny Taylor is a scholar, author, and activist. She has been continuously engaged in research since 1977 on three continents with families in diverse racial, ethnic and religious groups, living in poverty, in rural, urban, and suburban settings, homeless, in prisons, opioid dependent, and in regions of armed conflict including refugee camps.
Dr. Taylor's vita is testimony to her lifelong commitment to engage with researchers across the physical and social sciences, and with scholars in the humanities to work together to push down the risks and shore-up the future of humanity. Her scholarship has been highly dependent upon the collaborative transdisciplinary research networks she has established that have required the merger of disciplines to create new conceptual spaces for further scientific thinking beyond the possible perspectives that can be gained from within any single discipline or paradigm.
The concept of "family literacy" originates in Dr. Taylor's doctoral research, which is now the foundation of family literacy local projects and initiatives in more than 140 UN Member States. Frequently these projects include partnerships between government agencies, UN Agencies, NGOs, the medical and private sectors, and academia, teachers and parents in family literacy initiatives to address specific problems in local communities. Many research reports and family literacy proposals reference Dr. Taylor's original research and her origination of the concept of family literacy. Of particular note is the 2015 Nuffield Report: The impact of family literacy programmes on children's literacy skills and the home literacy environment; and the EU Report: Family literacy in Europe: using parental support initiatives to enhance early literacy development. Also, see the 2010 UNESCO Report on Family Literacy.
Job Titles:
- President and CEO of Text
Dr. Elfrieda "Freddy" H. Hiebert is President and CEO of TextProject, Inc. Dr. Hiebert received her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has worked in the field of early reading acquisition for 40 years, first as a teacher's aide and teacher of primary-level students in California and, subsequently, as a teacher educator and researcher at the universities of Kentucky, Colorado-Boulder, Michigan and California-Berkeley. Her research addresses ways of supporting students who depend on schools to become literate. In particular, her interests lie in how fluency, vocabulary, and knowledge can be fostered through appropriate texts. Dr. Hiebert's research has been published in numerous scholarly journals. She has also authored or edited nine books, the most recent of which is Revisiting Silent Reading: New Directions for Teachers and Researchers (International Reading Association; with R. Reutzel). Through documents such as Becoming a Nation of Readers (Center for the Study of Reading, 1985) and Every Child a Reader (Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement, 1999), she has contributed to making research accessible to educators. Dr. Hiebert's model of accessible texts for beginning and struggling readers-TExT-has been used to develop several reading programs that are widely used in schools. Dr. Hiebert is the 2008 recipient of the William S. Gray Citation of Merit, awarded by the International Reading Association and is a member of the Reading Hall of Fame. Dr. Hiebert chaired a group of experts on early childhood literacy who served in an advisory capacity to the CCSS writers.
Dr. Georgia Earnest García is Professor Emerita in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Prior to obtaining her PhD, she was a bilingual education teacher, English teacher, ESL/EFL teacher, Peace Corps volunteer, and social studies teacher. After obtaining her PhD, she held appointments at the Center for the Study of Reading, and served on the RAND Reading Study Group on Skillful Reading and the National Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth. Between 2019-2021, she was a member of the WestED Reading Content Team, which updated the 2026 NAEP Reading Framework.
Georgia's research focuses on the literacy development, instruction, and assessment of students from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, with much of it on bilingual students. She has published her work in the American Educational Research Journal, Bilingual Research Journal, Journal of Literacy Research, Reading Research Quarterly, Research in the Teaching of English, The Elementary School Journal, and The Reading Teacher. Georgia and Kay Stahl recently published two books (2015, 2022) on elementary children's reading comprehension instruction. Georgia currently has another book in press on bilingual students' literacy instruction (grades K-6). Although retired, she continues to collaborate with bilingual teachers and schools, and conduct and publish research on the literacy development, instruction, and assessment of bilingual students.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Language and Literacy at the University
James Hoffman is a Professor of Language and Literacy at The University of North Texas and currently serves as the Meadows Endowed Chair for Literacy. Dr. Hoffman is a former editor of The Reading Research Quarterly and The Yearbook of the National Reading Conference. He has served as President of the National Reading Conference and as a member of the Board of Directors of the International Reading Association. Dr. Hoffman was an affiliated scholar with both the National Reading Research Center and the Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement. He was elected to the Reading Hall of Fame in 2002 and served as President of this organization from 2008-2010. Dr. Hoffman served as the chair for the International Reading Association's Commission and the "Prepared to Make a Difference" research project. He has been active in international literacy projects in Central American, Africa and Asia. This past year he was awarded the Oscar Causey lifetime achievement award for research in literacy by the Literacy Research Association. The primary focus for his research has been on teaching and teacher preparation. Dr. Hoffman has published more than 150 articles, books and chapters on literacy related topics. He completed the Ph.D. at the University of Missouri at Kansas City.
Job Titles:
- Senior Fellow in the Faculty of Education
Jan Turbill is a Senior Fellow in the Faculty of Education, University of Wollongong, Australia. She is presently working in the Faculty of Business as the Teaching and Learning Consultant, working with Business academics to improve their teaching. Her research ranges from early literacy development to the professional learning of teachers. She is the author of many books and articles and is the past President of the Australian Literacy Educators' Association (ALEA). In 2008. She lives in a small seaside village with her 12 year old spoodle Bebe, 200km south of Sydney.
Job Titles:
- Education in the School of Education, Retired from Active Faculty Status on June 30, 2011
Karen Wixson, PhD, Professor of Education in the School of Education, retired from active faculty status on June 30, 2011.
Wixson received her bachelor of science degree in behavioral disabilities from the University of Wisconsin in 1972 and her master of science in education from SUNY-Binghamton in 1975. She earned her master's degree in reading education in 1978 and her doctor of philosophy degree in reading education in 1980, both from Syracuse University. Professor Wixson was appointed assistant professor at the University of Michigan in 1980, promoted to associate professor in 1985, and promoted to professor in 1991. She served as dean of the School of Education from 1998 to 2005.
Wixson has published widely in the areas of literacy curriculum, instruction, and assessment in books and journals such as Reading Research Quarterly, The Reading Teacher, Elementary School Journal, Review of Research in Education, and the Handbook of Reading Research. She is also an author on the Scott Foresman reading program and co-author of a popular text on the assessment and instruction of reading and writing problems.
Professor Wixson co-directed the federally funded Michigan English Language Arts Framework standards project, and served as co-director and principal investigator in the Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement (CIERA). She has been a long-time consultant to the National Assessment of Educational Progress reading tests, and recently served as a member of several National Research Council committees and as a member of the extended work group for the Common Core English-Language Arts Standards. She served as a member of the Board of Directors of both the National Reading Conference and the International Reading Association and is currently co-chair of the Reading Association's Commission on Response to Intervention.
Job Titles:
- Professor Emeritus of Education at Syracuse University
- Secretary, 2021 - 2025
Dr. Kathleen Hinchman is Professor Emeritus of Education at Syracuse University. She is also a member of the ProLiteracy Worldwide Board of Directors and on the NAEP Reading 2026 Visioning and Development Panels. She has also served on the Board of Directors and as President of both the National Reading Conference, now the Literacy Research Association, and the New York State Reading Association.
Hinchman's research interests include adolescent literacy, literacy teacher education, and students' and teachers' perspectives on literacy instruction. She has published several texts and numerous articles in such outlets as Reading Research Quarterly, Journal of Literacy Research, Journal of Education, Language Arts, and the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy. She has served as co-editor of the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy with Kelly Chandler-Olcott, and as co-editor of the National Reading Conference Yearbook, with Donald J. Leu & Charles K. Kinzer. She has reviewed for multiple publications, including Reading Research Quarterly, Journal of Literacy Research, Journal of Educational Research, and Literacy Research: Theory, Method, Practice. She has also been co-director of the Syracuse University Liberty Partnerships Program since 1989 in collaboration with the Syracuse City School District, a New York State Education Department grant that provides extracurricular support for middle and high school students' success in and out of school.
Hinchman taught courses in K-12 literacy instruction and sociocultural perspectives on literacy, working at the State University of New York College at Oswego, University of Wyoming, and Oswego County Board of Cooperative Education Services prior to returning to Syracuse University where she earned her Ph.D. She was previously a college study skills instructor and middle school English and reading teacher in Central New York.
Job Titles:
- Emeritus Professor of Applied Psychology and Human Development at the University
Keith E. Stanovich is Emeritus Professor of Applied Psychology and Human Development at the University of Toronto and former Canada Research Chair of Applied Cognitive Science. He is the author of over 200 scientific articles and nine books. He received his BA degree in psychology from Ohio State University in 1973 and his PhD in psychology from the University of Michigan in 1977. He was born in Youngstown, Ohio and is a US citizen. He currently resides in Portland, Oregon.
Stanovich's book, What Intelligence Tests Miss, received the 2010 Grawemeyer Award in Education. He is the only two-time winner of the Albert J. Harris Award from the International Reading Association for influential articles on reading. In 1995 he was elected to the Reading Hall of Fame as the youngest member of that honorary society. In 1996 he was given the Oscar Causey Award from the National Reading Conference for contributions to research, in 1997 he was given the Sylvia Scribner Award from the American Educational Research Association, and in 2000 he received the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading. In 2008 he received the Distinguished Researcher Award from the Special Education Research SIG of the American Educational Research Association. Stanovich is the winner of the 2012 E. L. Thorndike Career Achievement Award from the American Psychological Association. Link
Stanovich is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (Divisions 3, 7, 8, & 15), the American Psychological Society, the International Academy for Research in Learning Disabilities, and is a Charter Member of the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading. He was a member of the Committee on the Prevention of Reading Difficulties in Young Children of National Research Council/National Academy of Sciences.
From 1986-2000 Stanovich was the Associate Editor of Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, a leading journal of human development. His introductory textbook, How to Think Straight About Psychology, published by Pearson, is in its Eleventh Edition and has been adopted by over 500 institutions of higher education.
Stanovich's 1986 article on Matthew Effects in reading has been cited over 2700 times (ISI; 10,000 in Google Scholar) and he has authored 50 other articles that have received over 100 citations (ISI; 133 in Google Scholar). His work has been cited over 24,000 times in ISI and over 89,000 times according to Google Scholar. His H statistic in ISI is 51 and in Google Scholar it it 119. In a three-year survey of citation rates during the mid-1990s (see Byrnes, J. P. (1997). Explaining citation counts of senior developmental psychologists. Developmental Review, 17, 62-77), Stanovich was listed as one of the 50 most-cited developmental psychologists, and one of the 25 most productive educational psychologists (see Smith, M. C., et al., Productivity of educational psychologists in educational psychology journals, 1997-2001. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 28, 422-430). In a citation survey of the period 1982-1992, he was designated the most cited reading disability researcher in the world (Nicolson, R. I. Developmental dyslexia: Past, present and future. Dyslexia, 1996, 2, 190-207).
Linda B. Gambrell is Distinguished Professor of Education in the Eugene T. Moore School of Education at Clemson University where she teaches graduate and undergraduate literacy courses. From 1999 - 2006 she was the Director of the School of Education at Clemson University. Prior to coming to Clemson University in 1999, she was Associate Dean for Research in the College of Education at the University of Maryland - College Park. She began her career as an elementary classroom teacher and reading specialist in Prince George's County, Maryland. From 1992-97, she was a principal investigator at the National Reading Research Center at the University of Maryland where she directed the Literacy Motivation Project. She has served as President of the three leading professional organizations for reading, the International Reading Association, National Reading Conference/Literacy Research Association, and College Reading Association/Association of Literacy Educators and Researchers.
Her major research areas are literacy motivation, reading comprehension, and the role of discussion in teaching and learning. Her research has been published in major scholarly journals including Reading Research Quarterly, Educational Psychologist, Elementary School Journal, and Journal of Educational Research. She currently serves as co-editor of Reading Research Quarterly (with Susan B. Neuman, NYU).
Linda was elected to the Reading Hall of Fame in 2004. In 2014 she was the recipient of the Clemson University Alumni Award for Outstanding Reseach Achievement. She has also received professional honors and awards including the William S. Gray International Reading Association Award (2011), College Reading Association Laureate Award (2002); National Reading Conference Albert J. Kingston Award (2001), International Reading Association Outstanding Teacher Educator in Reading Award (1998), and the College Reading Association A.B. Herr Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Field of Reading (1994).
Margaret G. McKeown (Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh) is a Senior Scientist at the University of Pittsburgh's Learning Research and Development Center and Clinical Professor in the School of Education, emerita. Her work addresses practical, current problems that classroom teachers and their students face. Dr. McKeown has pursued two major lines of research, one in vocabulary and one in reading comprehension. The vocabulary work has focused on the effects of vocabulary knowledge on reading comprehension through the implementation of vocabulary programs designed to help students build rich semantic concepts. The comprehension work included the examination of students' knowledge of school topics developed from textbooks and the development of instructional approaches to help students construct meaning from text. Dr. McKeown began her career teaching reading and language arts in elementary school. Her work has been published extensively in outlets for both research and practitioner audiences, including AERJ, Elementary School Journal, Reading Research Quarterly, and The Reading Teacher. Her work has been recognized with the Outstanding Dissertation Award from the International Reading Association, a National Academy of Education Spencer postdoctoral fellowship, membership in the Reading Hall of Fame, and induction as an AERA fellow.
Job Titles:
- Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus