Louisa Cook Moats, Ed.D., Project Director, District of Columbia Public Schools site of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Early Interventions Project, National Institutes of Health, 825 North Capitol Street NE, Eighth Floor, Washington, D.C. 20002

Louisa Cook Moats is currently the District of Columbia site director for a 5-year study of early reading instruction conducted in Houston, Texas, and Washington, D.C., public schools. The project's principal investigator is Dr. Barbara Foorman of the University of Texas Health Science Center, who was awarded a National Institute of Child Health and Human Development grant (Grant No. HD 30995) to study elementary reading instruction in inner-city schools. Dr. Moats's primary responsibility in Washington is to design and implement professional development for teachers under a special appropriation from the U.S. Congress.

Dr. Moats spent the 1996-1997 school year as a visiting scholar at the Sacramento County Office of Education, where she authored and presented leadership training materials on early reading for the California State Board of Education. These materials are now required content in all of the professional development programs conducted under Assembly Bill 1086 in California.

Dr. Moats received her bachelor of arts degree at Wellesley College, her master of arts degree from Peabody College of Vanderbilt University, and her doctorate of education in reading and human development from Harvard University's Graduate School of Education. She worked as a teacher, neuropsychology technician, and specialist in learning disorders prior to her doctoral training. She was a licensed psychologist in private practice for 15 years in Vermont and a graduate instructor both at Harvard and at St. Michael's College in Winooski, Vermont, where she developed innovative courses for teachers linking the disciplines of linguistics and reading education. Specializing in reading development, reading disorders, spelling, and written language, she has written and lectured widely throughout the United States and abroad. Currently she teaches her own courses at the Greenwood Institute in Putney, Vermont, and at Simmons College in Boston. Her publications include journal articles; book chapters; a classroom basal spelling program; a book entitled Spelling: Development, Disability, and Instruction (York Press, 1995); and a book for parents, co-authored with Susan L. Hall, entitled Straight Talk About Reading: How Parents Can Make a Difference in the Early Years (Contemporary Books, 1999).