 | Dr. Sally E. Shaywitz |
Dr. Sally E. Shaywitz, the newly appointed Audrey Ratner Professor in Learning
Development at the School of Medicine, has devoted her career to better understanding
and helping children and adults who are dyslexic.
T H I S
Dr. Sally Shaywitz is designated
the Audrey Ratner Professor
Shaywitz is the co-director of the newly formed Yale Center for Dyslexia and
Creativity and the Yale Center for Learning, Reading and Attention. Her research
provides the basic framework, conceptual model, epidemiology and neurobiology
for the scientific study of dyslexia.
Shaywitz does much of her work in collaboration with her husband, Dr. Bennett
Shaywitz. Early on, the two recognized the potential of functional brain imaging
and led a national effort to apply functional imaging, especially functional
magnetic resonance imaging, to the study of reading and dyslexia in children
and adults. The Shaywitzes have made major contributions to understanding the
brain organization for reading, including identification and localization of
specific neural systems involved in the task; delineation of differences in these
systems between good and poor readers (including a neural signature for dyslexia);
the functional role for the system for reading fluency; the finding of at least
two neurobiological subtypes of reading disability (one primarily inherent, the
other more environmentally influenced); and the demonstration of plasticity in
the neural systems for reading and their ability to reorganize in response to
an effective evidence-based intervention.
Together with Bennett Shaywitz, Sally Shaywitz originated and championed the “Sea
of Strengths” model of dyslexia that emphasizes a sea of strengths of higher
critical thinking and creativity surrounding the encapsulated weakness found
in children and adults who are dyslexic. She is the author of over 200 scientific
articles, chapters and books, including the national bestseller “Overcoming
Dyslexia: A New and Complete Science-Based Program for Reading Problems at Any
Level,” first published in 2003, which received the Margo Marek Award and
the National Alliance on Mental Illness Award.
Shaywitz earned her B.A. from the City University and her M.D. from the Albert
Einstein College of Medicine.
An elected member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences,
she has received numerous honors for her work in advancing the scientific understanding
of reading and dyslexia, including an honorary Doctor of Science degree from
Williams College, the Townsend Harris Medal of the City College of New York,
the Annie Glenn Award for Leadership from Ohio State University, the Achievement
Award in Women’s Health of the Society for the Advancement of Women’s
Health Research, and the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Albert Einstein
College of Medicine. In recognition of her contributions to the National Academy
of Sciences, Dr. Shaywitz was named a National Associate of the National Academies.
Shaywitz recently served on the Advisory Council of the National Institute of
Neurological Diseases and Stroke and currently serves on the National Research
Council Committee on Women in Science and Engineering, the National Board for
Education Sciences, the National Advisory Board of the National Center for Learning
Disabilities and the scientific advisory board of the March of Dimes. She co-chairs
the National Research Council Committee on Gender Differences in the Careers
of Science, Engineering and Mathematics Faculty. She is on the editorial boards
of the Journal of Learning Disabilities and Learning Disabilities: A Contemporary
Journal.
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ENDOWED PROFESSORSHIPS
Dr. Richard Belitsky is the Harold W. Jockers Associate Professor
James Duncan is named the Ebenezer K. Hunt Professor
Dr. Erol Fikrig appointed the Waldemar Von Zedtwitz Professor
Dr. Sally Shaywitz is designated the Audrey Ratner Professor
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Campus Notes
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