The Stern Center for Language and Learning welcomed nationally recognized literacy expert Dr Jane Ashby to its staff June 4, 2018. Dr Ashby is a widely published author and a leader in the field of education with a passion for working with students and collaborating with teachers. In her role as Senior Director of Education, Dr Ashby oversees and delivers professional learning for educators; she teaches her first course as a Stern Center team member, Reading and the Brain, July 16-20, which is sold out but will be offered again in the spring of 2019.
Early in her career, Jane taught children and adults with reading difficulties in the Boston area, taught Writer’s Workshop, and performed educational assessments at Harvard Children’s Hospital. Later, she established a center in Ohio to provide staff development for educators, private tutoring, and summer programs for children who struggle with learning to read. As an Associate Professor of Psychology at Central Michigan University, Jane directed a laboratory studying how cognitive processes operate in real-time during silent reading. She also maintains an affiliation with Haskins Labs at Yale University. Publications include several papers about the role of phonology in silent reading, a graduate text about reading processes, and book chapters about reading development. In addition, she is an experienced practitioner who has used several structured literacy approaches, including Orton-Gillingham, Wilson, LETRS, and Project Read. Jane enjoys supporting teachers as they grow pedagogical skills that empower all children to experience the joy of reading.
Jane completed a two-year postdoctoral program at the University of Massachusetts, where she conducted eye movement research looking at the role of phonological processing during silent reading. She earned a PhD in Experimental Psychology from the University of Massachusetts in 2006 and holds a Master’s degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She has over ten years of experience assessing reading difficulties, delivering reading interventions, and conducting staff development for educators. She is also certified in the Orton-Gillingham method at the associate level. The Stern Center for Language and Learning is a nonprofit educational resource in Williston, VT, dedicated to enriching the lives of learners because all great minds don’t think alike. For 35 years we have worked with children and adults to help them reach their academic, social and professional goals. We provide research-based learning evaluations and customized instruction, including those with learning disabilities, dyslexia, language disorders, social learning challenges, autism, attention deficit disorders and learning differences. We design and deliver customized professional learning programs and system development using current research and trends in education. Through the Cynthia K. Hoehl Institute, we work with schools and individual educators in early literacy, oral language, reading, written language, social cognition, executive functioning and math. Scholarships are available. More information may be found at www.sterncenter.org.