Diane K. Lapp

Diane K. Lapp, EdD, is a distinguished professor of education and professor emerita in the School of Teacher Education at San Diego State University, where she has also held the title of Albert W. Johnson Distinguished Professor. A longtime literacy researcher and teacher educator, she has taught at the elementary, middle, and high school levels and currently works as an English teacher and literacy coach at Health Sciences High and Middle College, with a research focus on struggling readers and writers from economically disadvantaged urban communities, their families, and their teachers. She began her career as an elementary school teacher in Kalamazoo, Michigan, later taught at Boston University, and joined San Diego State University in 1978.

Lapp has been widely recognized for her contributions to literacy education, including induction into the Reading Hall of Fame (2005) and membership in both the California and International Reading Halls of Fame, as well as receiving the International Literacy Association’s 2023 William S. Gray Citation of Merit, the organization’s highest individual honor. She has authored, coauthored, and edited hundreds of articles, texts, handbooks, and curriculum materials on reading, language arts, and text complexity, and is coauthor of several influential books such as **Teaching Reading: A Playbook for Developing Skilled Readers Through Word Recognition and