Nancy Hennessy, literacy consultant and past president of the International Dyslexia Association, is an experienced educator. While in public schools, she provided leadership in the development of professional learning systems and innovative programming for special needs students. Nancy has and continues to design and deliver keynotes, as well as workshops and courses, related to reading proficiency. She is a former National Trainer for Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS). Nancy co-authored Module 6 of LETRS, Digging for Meaning: Teaching Text Comprehension (2nd edition) with Louisa Moats. Her chapter, Working with Word Meaning: Vocabulary Instruction, is in the fourth edition of Multisensory Teaching of Basic Skills. More recently, she authored the book, A Blueprint for Reading Comprehension Instruction: Helping Students Make Meaning from Text & a companion text, The Reading Comprehension Blueprint Activity Book: A Practice & Planning Guide for Teachers. In 2011, Nancy received the International Dyslexia Association’s Margaret Byrd Rawson Lifetime Achievement Award & in 2023, received  the North Carolina Dept. of Public Instruction Impact Award. She believes that all children have the right to learn how to read and that educators have the responsibility to learn how to teach them.