WRA Author Team

Dr. Catts is Research Associate in the School of Communication Science and Disorders at Florida State University. His research interests include the early identification and prevention of reading disabilities. He is a past board member of the International Dyslexia Association and past board member and President of the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading. He has received the Samuel T. Orton Award from the International Dyslexia Association and the Honors of the Association from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association for his career contributions in each of these disciplines. His current research concerns the early identification of reading and language disabilities and the nature and assessment of reading comprehension problems.

Dr. Yaacov Petscher is the Associate Dean for Research and Professor of Social Work at Florida State University, an Associate Director of the Florida Center for Reading Research, and the Director the Quantitative Methodology and Innovation Division at FCRR. Yaacov’s work is focused on measurement, causal modeling, the study of individual differences in reading using complex methodologies, and the development of screening assessments and computer adaptive tests. He is a Senior Member of the National Academy of Inventors and is the recipient of over two dozen awards including research awards from the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading, the International Literacy Association, and the Florida Educational Research Association; as well as innovation awards from Rstudio, the FSU Innovator Award from Florida State University; MIT Solve Challenge awards; and assessment awards from Tech and Learning Magazine and the International Society for Technology in Education. He has co-authored over 200 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and technical reports and co-edited The Fluency Construct and Applied Quantitative Analysis in Education and the Social Sciences books.