Molly Ness

Molly Ness

Dr. Molly Ness is a former classroom teacher, a reading researcher, and a teacher educator. She spent 16 years as an associate professor of childhood education at Fordham University, where she taught literacy methods coursework and doctoral courses in language, literacy, and learning. Her research focuses on reading comprehension, teachers’ instructional decisions, and dyslexia. In 2022, Dr. Ness joined the nonprofit Learning Ally as the vice president of academic content. She serves on the board of directors for the International Literacy Association and on the elementary advisory panel for Penguin Random House.

Dr. Ness began her career as a middle school teacher in Oakland, and she has worked as a diagnostic reading clinician. She is a staff member of The Windward Institute. Her publications have appeared in Pediatrics, The Reading Teacher, Reading and Writing, the Journal of Research in Childhood Education, and Psychology Today. In 2019, Molly began the End Book Deserts podcast to bring attention to the issue of book access and equity. Committed to literacy as an issue of social justice, she co-founded the Coalition for Literacy Equity in 2022. As the author of four books, she frequently speaks and presents at regional and national conferences.

Dr. Ness graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Johns Hopkins University. She earned a master’s degree in English education and a doctorate in reading education from the University of Virginia.