Meet the Team

Maryanne Wolf

John DiBaggio Professor of Citizenship and Public Service
Director, Center for Reading and Language Research

Maryanne Wolf received her doctorate from Harvard University in the Department of Human Development and Psychology in the Graduate School of Education, where she began her work on the neurological underpinnings of reading, language, and dyslexia. Professor Wolf was awarded the Distinguished Professor of the Year Award from the Massachusetts Psychological Association, and also the Teaching Excellence Award from the American Psychological Association.

She was a Fulbright Fellow in Germany where she conducted research on dyslexia in German-speaking children. Her current research in collaboration with Dr. Pat Bowers concerns a new conceptualization of developmental dyslexia, the Double-Deficit Hypothesis. This work was the subject of a recent special issue of the Journal of Learning Disabilities. Along with colleagues Dr. Robin Morris and Dr. Maureen Lovett, Professor Wolf has been awarded a NICHD Shannon Award for Innovative Research and several multiyear NICHD grants to investigate new approaches to reading intervention.

She is the author of the RAVE-O Intervention Program, an evidence-based fluency comprehension program for struggling readers that has proven successful in two major federal studies.

She received the Norman Geschwind Lecture Award from the International Dyslexia Association for neuroscience research in dyslexia. She has edited the book, Dyslexia, Fluency, and the Brain and is the author of Proust and the Squid: The story and science of the reading brain.

Selected Publications

• Morris, R., Lovett, M., Wolf, W. et al. (2010). Multi-component approaches to reading intervention. Journal of Learning Disabilities HD 30970-05
• Wolf, M. & Barzillai, M. (2009) The importance of deep reading. Educational Leadership. Special Issue on Literacy 2.0. 66, 6. p. 32-35
• Wof, M., Barzillai, M., Gottwald S., Miller, L., Spencer, K., Norton E., Lovett, M., & Morris, R., (2009) The RAVE-O Intervention: Connecting Neuroscience to the Classroom. Mind, Brain, and Education, 3(2), 84-93
• Wolf, M. (2008). A triptych of the reading brain: Evolution, development, pathology, and its intervention. Chapter in Antonio Damasio, Kurt Fischer, and Pierre Lena, (Eds). The educated brain. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
• Katzir, T., Kim, Y-S., Wolf, M., Morris, R., & Lovett, M. (2007). The varieties of pathways to dysfluent reading. Comparing subtypes of children with dyslexia at letter, word, and connected text levels of reading. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 41(1), 47-66. HD 30970-05
• Wolf, M. (2007). Proust and the squid: The story and science of the reading brain. NY: HarperCollins. Also appears as: Wolf, M. (2008). Proust and the squid: The story and science of the reading brain. London: Icon Books. 11 translations and Audio version
• Katzir, T., Kim, Y-S, Wolf, M., Kennedy, B., Lovett, M. & Morris, R. (2006). The relationship of spelling recognition, RAN, and phonological awareness to reading skills in older poor readers and younger reading-matched controls. Reading and Writing, 19, 845-872. HD 30970-05
• Wise, J., Sevcik, R., Morris, R., Lovett, M., & Wolf, M. (2006). The growth of phonological awareness: Response to reading intervention by children with reading disabilities who exhibit typical or below average language skills. Scientific Studies of Reading, 11(2), 151-164. HD 30970-05
• Katzir, T., Wolf, M., O’Brien, Kennedy, B., Lovett, M., & Morris, R. (2006). Reading fluency: The whole is more than the parts. Annals of Dyslexia, 56(1), 51-83.
• Donnelly Adams, K., Joffe BenAryeh, T., & Wolf, M. (2004). RAVE-O: Bringing fluency intervention to the classroom. Dyslexia Contact. Journal of British Dyslexia Association.
• Misra, M., Katzir, T., Wolf, M. & Poldrack, P. (2004). Neural systems underlying Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN) in skilled readers: Unraveling the puzzle of RAN-reading relationships. Scientific Studies of Reading. Special Issue on Neuroanatomy of Reading, 8, 241-256.
• Wolf, M. (Ed.) (2001). Dyslexia, Fluency, and the Brain. York Press: Timonium, MD.
• Wolf, M. & Katzir-Cohen, T. (2001). Reading fluency and its intervention. Scientific Studies of Reading, 5, 211-238. (Special Issue on Fluency. Editors: E. Kameenui & D. Simmons).
• Wolf, M., Bowers, P., & Biddle, K. (2000). Naming-speed processes, timing, and reading: A conceptual review. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 33, 387-407. (Special Issue on the Double-Deficit Hypothesis; Editors: M. Wolf & P. Bowers).
• Wolf, M., & Bowers, P. (1999). The "Double-Deficit Hypothesis" for the developmental dyslexias. Journal of Educational Psychology, 91, 1-24.