Misty Sailors is a Research Director on the Literacy team at WestEd. In her role, she leads the research for Reading Apprenticeship and is charged with growing WestEd’s research portfolio and eminence in adolescent literacy.
She comes to WestEd from higher education where she served as a Professor of Literacy Education at the University of Texas at San Antonio and the University of North Texas. She taught undergraduate and graduate literacy and research methods courses, created and evaluated curriculum (PK–20), conducted evaluations of literacy programs (PK–12), and led research efforts in the USA, Malawi, Mozambique, and South Africa. Sailors served as a literacy coach and student teacher supervisor in elementary, middle, and high school classrooms.
Sailors has written two practitioner-oriented books (Justice-Oriented Literacy Coaching and Practice-Based Research) and edited three more, including one of the longest-running books in literacy: Theoretical Models and Processes of Literacy (7th & 8th editions). She published over 80 scholarly research articles and book chapters, with work appearing in Reading Research Quarterly; Journal of Teaching and Teacher Education; Literacy; Journal of Literacy Research; Bilingual Research Quarterly; Reading Teacher; and Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy.
Sailors has secured over $23 million in research funding from US Government agencies, state governments, independent school districts, and not-for-profit organizations. She was the lead editor of the Journal of Literacy Research, was a member of the committee that revised the Standards for the Preparation of Literacy Professionals, 2017 Edition, and was a board member for the Literacy Research Association.
Sailors holds a BS in elementary education (emphasis in math), and an MEd and Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction (emphasis language and literacy) from The University of Texas at Austin.