Alisha Demchak

Alisha Demchak is an early childhood and literacy educator, researcher, and author whose work focuses on early literacy development and supporting teachers in implementing evidence-based instructional and assessment practices in early childhood classrooms. She has experience as an early childhood classroom teacher, reading specialist, and instructional coach, and serves as Program Coordinator for the Early Childhood Teacher Education Program at the University of Virginia, where she teaches courses in the teacher preparation program. Demchak completed a Ph.D. in Special Education and Teaching at the University of Virginia and holds a Master of Education (M.Ed.), building on a classroom foundation developed in Charlottesville City Schools.

Demchak is a contributing author of The Early Childhood Education Playbook (Corwin), coauthored with Kateri Thunder, John Almarode, Douglas Fisher, and Nancy Frey, which provides practical guidance for high-quality early childhood instruction. Her research has been published in peer-reviewed journals including Assessment for Effective Intervention, Annals of Dyslexia, and Reading and Writing, and she has coauthored work such as a 2025 Annals of Dyslexia article analyzing state-level review materials for K–2 core literacy curricula.