Professor Deborah Reed has spent most of her career teaching youngsters to read—and helping teachers improve reading education.
Her interest in the field stems from two very different experiences: studying Russian with dreams of becoming a foreign diplomat and teaching English at an adjudicated alternative school.
After a nationwide search, Reed was hired in July 2022 to direct the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences’ new Tennessee Reading Research Center. Developed in collaboration with the Tennessee Department of Education and the UT System, the center is a key component of the statewide literacy framework designed to ensure that Tennessee school districts, teachers, and families have the resources needed to help students achieve literacy success. Originally seeded with federal money, the center maintains recurring state funding to serve as the state’s independent evaluator and expert advisor on all literacy efforts.