Passionate about children’s rights to joyful, purposeful, evidence-based literacy learning, Katie loves working with students, teachers, and school leaders to bridge the science of reading with the joy of learning. With over twenty years of experience in education, Katie is a former elementary classroom teacher and instructional coach who now supports teachers as a college professor and educational consultant. 

Katie is an Associate Professor of Elementary Education at Sacred Heart University where she teaches literacy methods courses, children’s literature, foundations of dyslexia, clinical placement seminars, and a doctoral seminar in social and emotional learning. She also mentors undergraduate students in an internship focused on universal screening for dyslexia and evidence-based instruction. 

Katie has a Bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and a Master’s degree in Early Childhood and Childhood Education from New York University. She holds a doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction from Teachers College, Columbia University. 

Katie is the author or co-author of five books for educators. Her latest work is co-author of Shifting the Balance: 6 Ways to Bring the Science of Reading into the Upper Elementary Classroom, Grades 3-5 (Stenhouse Publishers) with Jan Burkins and Kari Yates. You can learn more about Katie’s work with Jan and Kari at TheSixShifts.com. 

Katie is also co-author with her Classroom Bookshelf colleagues of Reading with Purpose: Selecting and Using Children’s Literature for Inquiry and Engagement (Teachers College Press). Katie is the co-author of Literacy Leadership in Changing Schools (Teachers College Press) and author of Start with Joy: Designing Literacy Learning for Student Happiness and Story: Still the Heart of Literacy Learning both published by Stenhouse Publishers. You can find articles by Katie in influential journals including Educational Leadership and Language Arts. 

Katie lives with her husband, a fellow educator, two school-aged sons, and Mini Goldendoodle in the woods in Connecticut.

Tim is past president of the International Literacy Association. He served as a member of the Advisory Board of the National Institute for Literacy under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, and he helped lead the National Reading Panel, convened at the request of Congress to evaluate research on the teaching reading, a major influence on reading education. He chaired two other federal research review panels: the National Literacy Panel for Language Minority Children and Youth, and the National Early Literacy Panel, and helped write the Common Core State Standards.

He was inducted to the Reading Hall of Fame in 2007, and is a former first-grade teacher.