Marcia Invernizzi

Marcia Invernizzi, PhD, is an American reading education scholar and Edmund H. Henderson Professor Emerita of Reading Education at the University of Virginia’s School of Education and Human Development. A former English teacher and reading specialist, she has directed the university’s McGuffey Reading Center for many years and is widely recognized for her work in early literacy intervention. Invernizzi co-founded Book Buddies, a nationally recognized one-on-one tutoring program for struggling readers, and helped develop PALS (Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening), an early literacy screening and diagnostic tool used across Virginia.

Invernizzi is the lead author of Book Buddies: A Tutoring Framework for Struggling Readers and has coauthored several influential texts on word study and literacy, including Words Their Way: Word Study for Phonics, Vocabulary, and Spelling Instruction and related volumes in the Words Their Way series. Her research and professional work focus on evidence-based practices for early intervention, assessment, and developmental spelling, with a continued emphasis on ensuring that young children acquire strong foundations in reading and writing.