Ray Reutzel

Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services

Since 2001, D. Ray Reutzel has held the Emma Eccles Jones Endowed Chair of Early Childhood Education and is a Distinguished Professor in the College of Education and Human Services. As an endowed chair, he actively participates in teaching graduate courses, conducting research, mentoring faculty and graduate students, and seeking external research funding. He is currently the director of the Emma Eccles Jones Center for Early Childhood Education where he has helped the College of Education and Human Services earn its distinction as 3rd in the nation in obtaining external research funding. Reutzel’s current research focuses on evidence-based reading/writing instruction and teacher knowledge assessment. He has generated $2 million in external grants and contracts related to literacy assessment and instructional research with the proposals he has written since coming to USU. Recently, he has implemented evidence-based approaches to improve reading instruction, especially in poverty and low achieving schools in Utah and across the nation. Reutzel has received numerous honors from his colleagues and national organizations. “Dr. Reutzel would easily be counted among the top twenty-five scholars working in the field of reading. I suspect there are no reading researchers and few reading specialists who are unfamiliar with his work,” said Michael C. McKenna, professor of reading at the University of Virginia, Curry School of Education. Since 2002, he has served as co-editor of The Reading Teacher, the premier elementary section journal of the International Reading Association, subscribed to by about 65,000 people and 12,000 institutions throughout the world. Among his honors, are the 1992 Karl G. Maeser Creative Arts and Research Professor, Brigham Young University; 1999 A. B. Herr Outstanding Contributions to Reading Award from the College Reading Association, President Elect of the College Reading Association, 2006 Outstanding Educator Award in Utah from the Utah Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2006 Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Wyoming; 2007 John Chorlton Manning Public School Service Award to be awarded in May at the annual meeting of the  International Reading Association in Toronto, Canada. Reutzel has authored or co-authored 15 books, 11 nationally and internationally published instructional texts or programs for schools, 19 book chapters, 37 refereed theoretical articles, and 51 refereed research articles along with many other technical and accreditation reports, book reviews, and assessment tools. He was ranked the 12th most frequently published first author over a 40-year period in the International Reading Association’s elementary section journal, The Reading Teacher. He has been the featured or keynote speaker at 18 international and national conferences. D. Ray Reutzel is dedicated to research and scholarship and his dedication has enhanced the reputation of Utah State University. He is a deserving recipient of the 2007 D. Wynne Thorne Research Award.