Dr. Mary Abouzeid

Professor of Reading Education, UVA

Mary Abouzeid is Professor of Reading Education at the University of Virginia. She has been involved in professional development in our state for nearly twenty years and is the Director of the McGuffey/TEMPO Reading Outreach at the university. When the Virginia Department of Education came to Dr. Abouzeid to write the section of our state’s grant on professional development, she and her group took this as an opportunity to be involved in assuring quality for teachers. She became the Principal Investigator of Reading First’s professional development when Virginia received its grant in January of 2003.

Since then, her office has been instrumental in designing and delivering the teacher reading academies in our state, approaching the fourth summer. She envisioned a state partnership of teacher education institutions working together toward the future of teachers and children in our classrooms. Reading First has partnered with Radford, James Madison, William and Mary, Longwood, Emory & Henry, Virginia Commonwealth University, Norfolk State, Mary Washington, Marymount, Mary Baldwin, and the regional centers of the University of Virginia in Southwest, Roanoke, Richmond, and Hampton Roads to deliver Reading First training.

If we can make a difference for children, it will be through high-level professional development and the team of educators committed to it. Working with teachers exhibits the highest level of commitment we can demonstrate, according to Abouzeid. Quality in our classrooms depends on the professional development we are willing to give to our teachers.

Abouzeid graduated with her Ph.D. from the University of Virginia, and her M.A. is from the University of Michigan. She hails from Michigan but has been a Virginian for 28 years.

Websites: http://www.readingfirst.virginia.edu http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/go/tempo.