Patricia Edwards is a Professor of Language and Literacy and a Senior Researcher at the National Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement at Michigan State University where she just won the Distinguished Faculty Award. She holds a Doctorate in Reading Education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is the author to nationally acclaimed family literacy programs: Parents as Partners in Reading: A Family Literacy Training Program and Talking Your Way to Literacy: A Program to Help Nonreading Parents Prepare Their Children for Reading (on video). She is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the International Reading Association and has participated in the UNESCO World Symposium on Family Literacy as one of 50 researchers contributing to the development of world policy on family literacy. Dr. Edwards has served as an advisor to the First National Goal "Readiness for School," and the Michigan State University Institute for Families, Youth, and Children. Numerous foundations and organizations have recognized her research.

Dr. Edwards has taught in public schools and universities for twenty-five years and has published books and articles focused on family/intergenerational literacy and emergent literacy. Her research has been published in such journals as: Yearbook of the National Reading Conference, Theory into Practice, Teaching Education, Educational Policy and many others. She is the author of A Path to Follow: Learning to Listen to Parents (1999)

Grades: PREK - 5