Success Through Academic Interventions in Language & Literacy
Project SAILL Staff
Diane August, Ph.D. is currently a Senior Research Scientist at the Center for Applied Linguistics as well as a consultant located in Washington DC. She is the Principal Investigator for a large federally-funded study investigating the development of literacy in English-language learners, Co-Principal Investigator for a federally-funded randomized evaluation of English immersion and transitional bilingual programs, and Co-Principal Investigator at the National Research and Development Center on English-language Learners. She was Staff Director for the National Literacy Panel on Language Minority Children and Youth. She has been a Senior Program Officer at the National Academy of Sciences where she was study director for the Committee on Developing a Research Agenda on the Education of Limited English Proficient and Bilingual Students. Dr. August has worked as a teacher, school administrator, legislative assistant, Grants Officer for the Carnegie Corporation, and was Director of Education for the Children's Defense Fund. In 1981, she received her PhD in education from Stanford University, and in 1982 completed a postdoctoral fellowship in psychology also at Stanford. She has published widely in journals and books.
Cheryl Dressler is a literacy consultant. She was a teacher of English as a second language at the secondary level in Switzerland and at the primary and university levels in the United States. In 2002, Dr. Dressler received an Ed.D. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. During her doctoral study years, she assisted in a longitudinal, in-depth study of the vocabulary development of monolingual and bilingual fourth and fifth graders. Her doctoral thesis investigated the English spelling development of Spanish-speaking English-language learners. Dr. Dressler’s current research interests include the development of vocabulary and word structure knowledge, including orthographic and morphological knowledge, both in children who are native speakers of English and in English learners. She has published in Reading Research Quarterly, Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, and was a contributor to the Report of the National Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth. Most recently, Dr. Dressler authored a vocabulary program for students in kindergarten and first grade, Wordly Wise 3000, K and 1 (Educators Publishing Service).
Natalia Jacobsen is a research assistant at the Center for Applied Linguistics. She holds a BA/MA degree in German philology and an MA in Linguistics. She is currently pursuing her doctorate in Applied Linguistics at Georgetown University. Previously, Natalia has worked as an instructor of Russian and German, an ESOL teacher, a research assistant and a translator/interpreter.
Jennifer Letcher Gray is a research assistant at the Center for Applied Linguistics. She holds a master’s degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and is currently pursuing her doctorate in Reading Education at the University of Maryland, College Park. Jen has worked as a classroom teacher, a reading specialist, an ESL instructor, an adult literacy program coordinator, and a literacy specialist with the Office of Reading of the Massachusetts Department of Education.
Susan Massey is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Miami and teaches both graduate and undergraduate classes. She received her teacher certification in Canada and for many years was a secondary school teacher on the island of Andros in the Bahamas. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Primary Education from Nova Southeastern University and a master’s degree in Learning Disabilities and Emotional Behaviour from the University of Miami where she is pursuing her doctorate. Presently she is writing curriculum for grades 1 and 2 for bilingual children as part of a federally-funded research grant.
Julie Mazrum is a research assistant at the Center for Applied Linguistics. She holds a Master’s of Arts in teaching degree with a focus on elementary education from American University, as well as a Washington, DC teaching certificate. Before coming to CAL, Julie spent four years in a Washington, DC public school teaching first grade ESL and a second grade classroom. Additionally, she taught sixth grade English for a year in a bilingual school in Mexico.
