Timothy Shanahan is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chi­cago where he is Founding Di­rector of the UIC Center for Literacy. In 2015, he is visiting research professor at Queens University, Belfast, Northern Ireland. In 2001-2002, he was director of reading for the Chicago Public Schools, serving 437,000 children. While in that position, Dr. Shanahan put in place instructional time standards, a research-based curriculum framework, and an extensive professional development strategy that resulted in substantially higher reading achievement for the nation’s third largest school district. He is author or editor of approximately 200 publications including the books, Early Childhood Literacy, Developing Literacy in Second-Language Learners, Teachers Thinking—Teachers Knowing, and Multi­disciplinary Per­spec­tives on Literacy. His research emphasizes reading-writing relationships, reading assessment, and improving reading achievement.  Professor Shanahan is past president of the International Reading Association. In 2006, he received a presidential appointment to serve on the Advisory Board of the National Institute for Literacy, and he has served on the Advisory Boards of the National Center for Family Literacy and Reach Out and Read. He played a leadership role on the National Reading Panel (NRP), and chaired two other influential federal research review panels the National Literacy Panel for English Minority Children and Youth, and the National Early Literacy Panel (making him the only scholar to serve on all three national literacy research panels).