Academic Advisors/Reviewers

Maryanne Wolf is the Director of the Center for Reading and Language Research at Tufts University and a Professor in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development. She has received her Ed.D. degree from Harvard University and has been awarded the Distinguished Professor of the Year Award from the Massachusetts Psychological Association, a Fulbright Research Fellow in Germany, and the Norman Geschwind Lecture Award from the International Dyslexia Association. With colleagues, Robin Morris and Maureen Lovett, she received the NICHD Shannon Award for Innovative Research and is conducting an NICHD three-city reading intervention project focusing on fluency (RAVE-O). Maryanne is the author of the Scholastic Red Fluency course for Grades K–2. She has published books such as Dyslexia, Fluency, and the Brain, and numerous articles in The Journal of Educational Psychology, Journal of Learning Disabilities, and Reading Research Quarterly.

Chip Gidney is an Associate Professor at Tufts University specializing in linguistics, dyslexia in African-American children, and teaching reading to the English-language learner. He received his Ph.D. degree from Georgetown University. Chip is a former lecturer at the District of Columbia Department of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology; former research assistant and consultant at the Center for Applied Linguistics in Washington, D.C.; and has taught in middle school in Ecuador. Chip has published several articles in The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science and Journal of Child Language. Chip is also a language advisor on Scholastic’s new PBS children’s television show Maya and Miguel, currently in development.

Kevin Feldman is the Director of Reading and Early Intervention at the Sonoma County Office of Education in California. A strong advocate of intervention products such as READ 180 and fluency products such as Read Naturally, Kevin has endorsed the Fluency Formula’s Assessment System as a key component in all district’s assessment plans. Kevin received is Ed.D. degree from the University of San Francisco and is active in teaching training throughout the state. Kevin has written or co-authored several documents including The California Reading Initiative and Special Education task force report of 1999, They Can ALL Read: Linking Research to Practice with Struggling Readers, Creating Thought-Full Classrooms, and the PRICE Parenting Program.

Phyllis Hunter is a former teacher and specialist in curriculum, special education, and speech and language. As an administrator with the Houston Independent School District for seven years, Phyllis managed the reading department for the district's 282 schools, Grades Pre-K through 12. She was also responsible for several initiatives, including district-wide teacher training; Success for All implementation in 70 elementary schools; individualized tutoring in 27 elementary schools; and the creation of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo Institute for Teacher Excellence (Project RITE), which provides systematic staff support in direct reading instruction. As a former principal in California's Hayward Unified School District, Phyllis is currently an executive board member of the Consortium for Policy Research in Education. In December 2000, she was appointed to President George W. Bush's Educational Transition Team. She and President Bush have worked together to implement Texas Statewide Reading Initiatives to ensure that all children are reading at grade level or better by third grade.

Wiley Blevins is the Director of Primary Programs at Scholastic. He completed his graduate work at Harvard University where he studied with renowned reading authority Jeanne Chall. Throughout his career he has also worked closely with reading experts such as Louisa Moats and Marilyn Jager Adams. After beginning his career as an elementary school teacher in both the United States and South America, Wiley later began working in educational publishing. He has worked for Scholastic, Open Court, and Houghton Mifflin. Wiley has written several professional development books including Phonics from A to Z, Teaching Phonics and Word Study in the Intermediate Grades, Phonemic Awareness Activities for Early Reading Success, Building Fluency: Lessons and Strategies for Reading Success, and Teaching Students to Read Nonfiction and numerous articles for Instructor magazine. He also conducted a study on the use of decodable text in early reading instruction in the New York City Public Schools. In addition, Wiley is the author of Scholastic Red's Fluency course for Grades 3-8.