Scientific Advisory Board

List of 6 items.

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  Dr. Marcia Barnes, Vanderbilt University

  Marcia Barnes, Ph.D. is a Professor of Special Education. She conducts research on the cognitive processes associated with difficulties in reading comprehension and mathematics in children with neurodevelopmental disorders and children at risk for or with learning disabilities. Her research has received federal funding from the Institute of Education Sciences and the National Institutes of Health. She is the author of many peer-reviewed papers and book chapters, and co-author of a widely-used book on learning disability identification, assessment, and intervention. Her research papers have appeared in a variety of journals including Scientific Studies of Reading; Psychological Bulletin; Journal of Educational Psychology; Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness; Journal of Learning Disabilities; Journal of the International Neuropsychological Association; and Neuropsychology. 
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  Dr. Laurie Cutting, Vanderbilt University

  Laurie E. Cutting, Ph.D., is the Patricia and Rodes Hart Professor of Special Education, Psychology and Human Development, Radiology, Pediatrics, and Electrical and Computer Engineering at Vanderbilt University, and was the recipient of the 2017-2018 Joe B. Wyatt Distinguished University Professorship at Vanderbilt University. She is also Associate Director of the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, a member of the Vanderbilt Brain Institute, training faculty for Vanderbilt’s Neuroscience Ph.D. program, and a Senior Scientist at Haskins Laboratories. Her work focuses on brain-behavior relations in children and adolescents, with a particular emphasis on reading, language, and executive function. Currently, she is the principal investigator of several NIH- and other federally funded research projects examining the neural underpinnings of cognitive development and academic achievement.
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  Dr. Steve Graham, Arizona State University

  Dr. Steve Graham is a Regents Professor and the Warner Professor in the division of leadership and innovation in the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University. For more than 40 years, he has studied how writing develops, how to teach it effectively, and how writing can be used to support reading and learning. In recent years, he has been involved in the development and testing of digital tools for supporting writing and reading through a series of grants from the Institute of Educational Sciences and the Office of Special Education Programs in the U.S. Department of Education. His research involves typically developing writers and students with special needs in both elementary and secondary schools, with much of occurring in classrooms in urban schools.  He is the former editor of the journals Exceptional Children, Contemporary Educational Psychology, Journal of Writing Research, Focus on Exceptional Children, and he is the current editor of the Journal of Educational Psychology. He is the co-author of the "Handbook of Writing Research," "Handbook of Learning Disabilities," "APA Handbook of Educational Psychology," "Writing Better," "Powerful Writing Strategies for all Students" and "Making the Writing Process Work." He is also the author of three influential Carnegie Corporation reports: Writing Next , Writing to Read , and Informing Writing.
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  Dr. Karen Harris, Arizona State University

  Dr. Karen R. Harris is a professor in the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University. She has worked in the field of education for over 40 years, initially as a general education teacher and then as a special education teacher. Her research focuses on informing and improving theory, research and practice related to writing development among students with high incidence disabilities, students who struggle with writing, and normally achieving students. She developed the Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) model of strategies instruction; SRSD has been most extensively researched in the area of writing, although researchers have also addressed applications in reading, math and homework. Former editor of the Journal of Educational Psychology, Dr. Harris was also senior editor of the American Psychological Association Educational Psychology Handbook (2012). She is the lead editor (along with Steve Graham) of the What Works for Special Needs Learners series published by Guilford Press. She is co-author or co-editor of 14 books and over 200 peer-reviewed articles and chapters, and has served on editorial boards for journals in special education, educational psychology, and general education.
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  Dr. Debra McKeown, Texas A&M University

  Dr. McKeown is a member of the Department of Teaching, Learning and Culture at Texas A&M University.  She spent more than five years prior at Georgia State University where she was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education. Dr. McKeown received her doctorate in Special Education from Vanderbilt University where she trained under fellow Scientific Advisory Board members, Drs. Karen Harris and Steve Graham. Debra also has ten years of classroom teaching in various settings including charter, urban and international schools. She currently conducts intervention research in the area of writing. Most of her work focuses on impoverished urban settings where she works at both the teacher and student levels. She presents her work at national and international conferences and publishes in top tier journals. She is currently co-PI on a federal grant to demonstrate the efficacy of a writing intervention combining teacher instruction and an intelligent tutor to improve writing outcomes for elementary aged children.
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  Dr. Jeanne Wanzek, Peabody College, Vanderbilt University

  Dr. Jeanne Wanzek is the Currey-Ingram Endowed Chair and professor in the Department of Special Education at Peabody College of Education and Human Development, Vanderbilt University. She conducts research examining effective reading instruction and intervention. Her focus is on prevention and remediation for students with reading difficulties and disabilities. Prior to receiving her doctorate, she worked as a special educator and as an elementary teacher. She has a number of publications as well as national and international presentations in the areas of early reading, learning disability, response to intervention and adolescent reading intervention.