All of the SIG Officers welcome you to the SIG 11 - Research in Reading and Literacy website.

We appreciate your membership and encourage you to invite your non-SIG member colleagues to become members. Please direct them to the AERA website (https://www.aera.net/) to sign in. Then have them click on SIGs located in the menu situated in the upper right-hand corner of the page. In the About AERA SIGs-centered information, direct them to SIG Information and follow the directions: “Non-members, please click here to become a member of AERA and one or more SIGs or to renew your AERA and SIG memberships.”

Throughout the year, we will continue to share current SIG announcements and other information in our newsletter and look forward to meeting you at the AERA annual meeting. Make sure to introduce yourselves at the annual meeting and contact any SIG officer listed in our directory for additional information.

Best regards,

Dr Emily Rodgers, Chair

Dr Emily Rodgers, The Ohio State University

Chair (Elected)

rodgers.42@osu.edu 

Dr Emily Rodgers is a professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning at The Ohio State University. She is affiliated with the Literacies, Literature, and Learning section in the Department of Teaching and Learning where she mentors graduate students and teaches undergraduate and graduate courses related to early literacy. Emily studies educational policies and practices that influence the reading development of young students who are having difficulty learning to read and write; lines of inquiry that have their roots in her early career as a classroom teacher, a reading specialist and a special education teacher.

Dr John Z. Strong, University at Buffalo

Program Chair (Elected)

jstrong3@buffalo.edu

Dr John Z. Strong is Associate Professor of Literacy Education in the Graduate School of Education at the University at Buffalo. He is also Associate Director of Research in the Center for Literacy and Reading Instruction and Co-PI in the Center for Early Literacy and Responsible AI. His research focuses on developing and testing reading and writing interventions to support students’ foundational reading skills and comprehension. A former high school English language arts teacher, he is coauthor of professional books on literacy instruction in grades 4-12. He has also published in leading journals and has received external funding from the Advanced Education Research and Development Fund (AERDF), the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), and the International Literacy Association (ILA). His funded projects include Read STOP Write, a multicomponent intervention for students in grades 4-9, and ACCESS Reading, a summer tutoring program for students in grades K-5. He received the Timothy and Cynthia Shanahan Outstanding Dissertation Award and was named a Reading Hall of Fame Emerging Scholars Fellow. He has served as associate editor of The Reading Teacher and serves on the editorial review boards of top-tier literacy research journals.

Dr Tracy Johnson, University of Indianapolis

Secretary/Treasurer (Elected)

johnsontl@uindy.edu

Dr Tracy Johnson is an Assistant Professor of K-6 Literacy at the University of Indianapolis. She teaches courses in primary literacy and reading intervention. Her research agenda focuses on early literacy development and on instruction that supports such development. She is the incoming co-chair of the Indiana State Literacy Association. Dr. Johnson has been an AERA member as well as a member of the Research in Reading and Literacy SIG since 2019. 

Dr Jeanne Sinclair, Memorial University of Newfoundland

Newsletter Editor (Appointed)

jeannes@mun.ca

Dr Jeanne Sinclair is an Assistant Professor in Memorial University of Newfoundland’s  (MUN’s) Faculty of Education, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in language and literacy development, instruction, and assessment. She currently chairs MUN’s Reading Development and Instruction graduate program. Prior to joining academia, she was a bilingual (Spanish-English) elementary teacher in Central Texas. Her research focuses on literacy instruction and assessment, especially for equity-seeking groups.

Dr Patrick Burke, Dublin City University

Online Coordinator (Appointed) 

patrick.j.burke@dcu.ie

Dr Patrick Burke is an Assistant Professor in the School of Language, Literacy and Early Childhood Education at Dublin City University, Ireland. In this role, he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in literacy education and supervises literacy research to doctoral level. He also serves as the current President of the Literacy Association of Ireland and Chairperson of Ireland’s Primary Language Development Group, the committee charged by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment to develop standards for literacy/language nationwide. Prior to joining the faculty at DCU, he worked as an elementary/primary school teacher and professional development advisor.