Timothy Shanahan is an internationally recognized professor of urban education and reading researcher who has extensive experience with children in inner-city schools and children with special needs. He helped lead the National Reading Panel (NRP), convened at the request of Congress to evaluate research on the teaching of reading. The resulting 2000 NRP Report has had a significant, lasting influence on reading education. He is author/editor of more than 200 publications on literacy education. His research emphasizes the connections between reading and writing, literacy in the disciplines, and improvement of reading achievement. His blog about teaching reading, Shanahan on Literacy, is syndicated on Reading Rockets.