October 08, 2009

The Reading Recovery Council of North America appointed as its new president Judith Neal, professor emerita of education at California State University, Fresno.

The council is an 8,000-member international membership association dedicated to helping first graders who have extreme difficulty learning to read.

Recognized for her local and national service in behalf of young readers, Neal is the former director of Fresno State’s Central California Reading Recovery Project. She supervised teacher training sites in five Western states and taught graduate-level courses for Reading Recovery teacher leaders.

Professionals trained under her leadership have served more than 60 school districts, implementing literacy intervention for more than 30,000 struggling children.

Neal is founding editor of “The Journal of Reading Recovery” and served as its editor-in-chief from 2001 to 2006. She also edited “The Running Record: A Review of Theory and Practice for Reading Recovery Teachers” from 1997 to 2001.

Click here for more about the council.