Nancy Hennessy:
Nancy Hennessy is an experienced teacher and administrator who currently works as a literacy consultant. While in public schools, she provided leadership for innovative programming for special need students and professional learning for all educators.
Nancy has designed and delivered keynote addresses and multiple virtual and live professional learning events including workshops, podcasts, and training courses on the science of reading & structured literacy. Most recently, reading comprehension has been her focus.
She is the author of the book, The Reading Comprehension Blueprint: Helping Students Make Meaning of Text and recently, co-authored a companion text, The Reading Comprehension Activity Book: A Practice & Planning Guide for Teachers with Julia Salamone. Nancy has also written the chapter, Working with Word Meaning: Vocabulary Instruction, in Multisensory Teaching of Basic Skills (4th edition). While serving as a national trainer for Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling, she co-authored LETRS, Digging for Meaning: Teaching Text Comprehension (2nd edition) with Louisa Moats.
She is the past president of the International Dyslexia Association (IDA) and has served as the vice-president of the North Carolina Branch of IDA. In 2011, Nancy received the International Dyslexia Association’s Margaret Byrd Rawson Lifetime Achievement Award. She was recently honored with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction’s 2023 Impact Award.