Marilyn Jager Adams, Ph.D.

Marilyn Jager Adams is a Visiting Professor in the Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences Department at Brown University. Adams received a Ph.D. from Brown University in cognitive psychology and developmental psychology in 1975. Dr. Adams has served as Literacy Advisor for “Sesame Street” and as Senior Advisor for Instruction for PBS’s “Between the Lions.” She chaired the Planning Committee and was a member of the Study Committee for the National Research Council’s report, Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children (1998). She has been on the Planning or Steering Committee for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Reading Assessment since 1992. Dr. Adams was the Chief Scientist at Soliloquy Learning, a software company which she co-founded in 2000 to use automated speech recognition to support learning to read. Dr. Adams has also written and designed three empirically proven instructional programs: on thinking skills for middle school students, on reading and writing for elementary school students, and on linguistic awareness for emergent book, A readers and special needs students. In 2013, she published what is probably her best-known book, ABC Foundations for Young Children. Her other books include the landmark book, Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning About Print (1990). Adams was cited in the 2001 Politics of Education Yearbook as one of the five most influential people in the national reading policy arena (McDaniel et al., 2001). She is the recipient of the American Educational Research Association's Scribner Award for outstanding research. Dr. Adams is an elegant writer who turns complicated cognitive science concepts into digestible prose for literacy practitioners.