About the Author | Sharon Vaughn, Ph.D., H.E. Hartfelder/Southland Corp. Regents Chair in Human Development and Executive Director, The Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk, University of Texas at Austin, Sanchez Building, 1912 Speedway, Austin, Texas 78712 Sharon Vaughn is the executive director of The Meadows Center, an organized research unit at the University of Texas at Austin. She is the recipient of the American Education Research Association Special Interest Group Distinguished Researcher Award, the International Reading Association Albert J. Harris Award, the University of Texas Distinguished Faculty Award, and the Jeannette E. Fleischner Award for Outstanding Contributions in the Field of Learning Disabilities from the Council for Exceptional Children. She is the author of more than 35 books and 250 research articles. Vaughn is currently the principal investigator on several research grants from the Institute for Education Sciences, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the U.S. Department of Education. Richard T. Boon, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Communication Sciences & Special Education at The University of Georgia. His research interests include cognitive strategy instruction, inclusion, and technology-based applications for students with mild to moderate disabilities. He has written more than 50 publications, including peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and conference proceedings. In addition, he has made more than 100 presentations at local, state, regional, national, and international conferences. In recognition of his accomplishments in research and teaching, Dr. Boon has received the Outstanding Teaching Award and was selected as a recipient of the Lilly Teaching Fellowship Award for 2006-2008, from the College of Education, both recognizing excellence in teaching and research, and more recently, was the recipient of the Sarah H. Moss Fellowship for 2008-2009 to serve as a Visiting Scholar at the University of Toronto. Vicky G. Spencer, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Division of Special Education and disability Research at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. She also coordinates the Applied Behavior Analysis and the Autism certificate programs. Her research interests include cognitive strategy instruction, international issues in special education, inclusion, and autism. She has authored or edited numerous research articles and published four books that address differentiated instruction and teaching in the inclusive classroom. Dr. Spencer is a Fulbright scholar and works internationally to improve the identification and education for children with disabilities. Sheila R. Alber-Morgan, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Special Education, The Ohio State University, A356 PAES Building 305 W. 17th Ave. Columbus, OH 43210. Dr. Alber-Morgana (TM)s research focuses on multitiered reading and writing interventions in inclusive classrooms and programming for generalized outcomes. Ana Taboada Barber, Ph.D., Associate Professor, George Mason University, 4400 University Boulevard, Fairfax, VA 22030 Dr. Taboada Barber's research focuses on the examination of classroom contexts that support reading engagement for monolingual and second language learners. She is specifically interested in the psychology of literacy from a cognitive and motivational perspective. In the past, she worked on the development of the modeling of reading engagement as it applies to all learners (e.g., native-speakers of English and second language learners) in the late elementary grades. She is currently working on the development of frameworks within the engagement model as they apply to second language learners. |