Dr. Cathy Collins Block is a professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Texas Christian University where she teaches graduate and undergraduate courses. She has directed seven nationally funded research studies concerning literacy development, and currently serves as co-director of the National Consortium of Best Research-based Practices in Comprehension Instruction. Dr. Block has authored, edited or co-edited 29 books, with her most recent being Comprehension Instruction: Research-based Best Practices (Guildford Publishers); Literacy Difficulties: Diagnosis and Correction (Allyn & Bacon); Improving Comprehension Instruction (Jossey Bass and International Reading Association), Learning to Read: Lessons from Exemplary First-Grade Classrooms (Guildford). She has been an elementary classroom teacher in Wisconsin, Oklahoma, and Texas, and the Director of Reading for a Texas Teacher Center. She is the co-author of the Stanford Early School Achievement Test, Literacy Place for Scholastic, and Yale Assessment of Thinking Abilities. She has written more than 75 research articles in journals such as the Reading Research Quarterly, Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, The Reading Teacher, Journal of Educational Research, Elementary School Journal, Gifted Child Quarterly, Instructor, and Teaching Thinking and Problem Solving. Her primary research interests are in the fields of literacy achievement, comprehension, cognitive strategies, curriculum development, and teacher education.

Dr. Block recently served as Chairperson of the Educational Leadership Board for IBM, Chairperson for the National Commission to Infuse Critical Thinking Into the Curriculum of the US Department of Education, and as an Educational Advisor for Walt Disney, Inc. She also served on the Board of Directors for the International Reading Association (2002-2005) and Nobel Learning Communities (1995-present). She is on the Editorial Boards of the Reading Research Quarterly, National Reading Conference Yearbook, Journal of Educational Psychology, and The Reading Teacher. She is the Educational Advisor for the PBS television series Wishbone (Guilford Press) and has served as a consultant for more than 200 school districts and educational agencies in the United States, Mexico, Canada, Germany, Russia, and Hungary. She recently received the Paul A. Witty Award for Meritorious Service from the International Reading Association, and has received the TCU School of Education award for Distinguished Research and Creative Activity in 1987 and 1999. She also received the Outstanding Professor Award from the University of Notre Dame's Master of Education Program in 2000. She is a member of Who's Who in the World, Who's Who in America, 200 Outstanding Scholars in 21st Century, and Who's Who Among America's Teachers.