About the Presenters

Maryanne Wolf is a scholar, teacher, and advocate for children and literacy around the world. She is the Director of the Center for Dyslexia, Diverse Learners, and Social Justice in the School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA and the former John DiBiaggio Professor of Citizenship and Public Service at Tufts University. She has authored over 170 scientific publications including Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain (15 translations; HarperCollins, 2007); Tales of Literacy for the 21st Century (Oxford University Press, 2016); and Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World (12 translations; HarperCollins, 2018). She is co-author with Martha Denckla of the RAN/RAS naming speed tests, a universal predictor of dyslexia, and the creator of the RAVE-O Intervention Program for all struggling readers. She has received multiple awards for her contributions to the neuroscience of reading; the major awards from the International Dyslexia Association and the Einstein Award from the Dyslexia Foundation for her dyslexia research; and the Walter Ong Award and the Alfred Korzybski Award for her work on the effects of different mediums on the intellectual development of the species. Most recently, she was elected a permanent member of the Pontifical Academy of Science.

Dr. Carolyn Brown has devoted her career to developing tools and testing solutions that optimize language and literacy development for all students. She and her colleagues have received support from the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Education, the National Science Foundation, and the State of Iowa. Dr. Brown received her B.S. and M.S. degrees in speech pathology and audiology from Eastern New Mexico University and her Ph.D. in the same field at University of Iowa. Her areas of specialization are child development, language acquisition, and the Science of Reading.

She and her husband, Dr. Jerry Zimmermann, have co-founded three companies: Breakthrough to Literacy, the Iowa Language and Literacy Institute, and Foundations in Learning. Each was organized to advance current science and create solutions to help all children learn to read. She is also an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of Iowa.

About the Moderator

Tim Odegard is a Professor of Psychology holding the Katherine Davis Murfree Chair of Excellence in Dyslexic Studies, and he leads the Tennessee Center for the Study and Treatment of Dyslexia at Middle Tennessee State University. He contributes significantly to advancing the Science of Reading in key leadership roles. He currently serves As Editor-in-Chief of Annals of Dyslexia and consulting editor for the Journal of Learning Disabilities, and is a past editor of Perspective on Language and Literacy. He was a contributing author on the IDA’s Knowledge and Practice Standards for Teachers of Reading. He is a past Vice President of the Texas Dyslexia Licensure Advisory Committee and has served as a member of the International Dyslexia Association’s (IDA) Educational Training Initiative. 

His commitment to enhancing educational opportunities extends beyond students with dyslexia, and Tim works on broader literacy initiatives throughout the United States. His service has included chairing the Foundational Literacy Skills working group for the Haskins Global Literacy Hub Policy Summit, serving as a technical consultant for a review of the K-2 core curriculum in Arkansas, and serving as a national consultant for Kentucky’s foundational literacy skills and reading disabilities work. He contributed to online training for several state departments of education and has provided technical support to some of the largest school districts in the U.S. He currently serves as a member of the California Reading Difficulties Risk Selection panel and several advisory boards for nonprofit groups making meaningful impacts in communities across the nation.