Rate My Professor Heidi Mesmer

Heidi Anne E. Mesmer, Ph.D., is a Professor in Literacy in Virginia Tech's School of Education, serving as the Program Leader for the Reading Specialist Program. A former third-grade classroom teacher, she has worked extensively with teachers, schools, and young readers, directing numerous school-based initiatives to improve reading instruction. Prior to her current position, Dr. Mesmer held tenure-track positions at Virginia Commonwealth University and Oklahoma State University. Since 1999, she has focused her research on beginning reading materials, text difficulty, and struggling readers.

Dr. Mesmer's research has appeared in leading journals such as Reading Research Quarterly, The Educational Researcher, Elementary School Journal, and Early Childhood Research Quarterly. She is the author of several books, including Tools for Matching Readers to Texts: Research-Based Practices (2007), Reading Intervention in the Primary Grades: A Common-Sense Guide to RTI (2014), Teaching Skills for Complex Text: Deepening Reading in the Classroom (Teachers College Press, 2016), Letter Lessons and First Words: Phonics Foundations that Work (Heinemann, 2019), and Alphabetics for Emerging Learners: Building Strong Reading Foundations in PreK (2021). She has written and directed eight grants aimed at improving reading instruction in K-5 classrooms, supported by funding from the National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation and an American Educational Research Association/Institute of Education Sciences grant. Dr. Mesmer received the Outreach Award from the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences at Virginia Tech and the Promising Scholar Award from the School of Education. In 2014, she delivered the George Graham Lecture in Reading at the Curry School of Education, University of Virginia. She is regularly called upon by states and professional organizations, such as the International Literacy Association and the State of Maryland, to deliver lectures in her area of expertise.