Sally E Shaywitz MD

Audrey G. Ratner Professor of Pediatrics (Neurology) and Professor in the Child Study Center; Co-Director, Yale Center for Dyslexia & Creativity

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Departments & Organizations

Yale Medical Group

Child Study Center

Pediatrics: Pediatric Neurology

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Biography

Sally E. Shaywitz, M.D., the Audrey G. Ratner Professor in Learning Development at the Yale University School of Medicine, is Co-Director of the Yale Center for Dyslexia & Creativity. Dr. Shaywitz is the author of over 200 scientific articles, chapters and books, including, Overcoming Dyslexia (Knopf, 2003) which details critical scientific findings in dyslexia and how to translate this scientific knowledge into clinical practice. Her research provides the basic framework: conceptual model, epidemiology and neurobiology for the scientific study of dyslexia. Dr. Shaywitz originated and championed the “Sea of Strengths” model of dyslexia which emphasizes a sea of strengths of higher critical thinking and creativity surrounding the encapsulated weakness found in children and adults who are dyslexic. Her most recent work provides the long awaited empiric evidence for the unexpected nature of dyslexia.

Dr. Shaywitz’ many awards include election to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences; an honorary Doctor of Science degree from Williams College; the Townsend Harris Medal of the City College of New York; the Annie Glenn Award for Leadership from the Ohio State University; and the Distinguished Alumnus Award of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Dr. Shaywitz was selected, along with Dr. Bennett Shaywitz, as recipient of the Haggerty-Friedman Distinguished Lectureship at the University of Rochester; Lawrence G. Crowley Distinguished Lectureship at Stanford University; Rita Rudel Distinguished Lectureship at Columbia University; Waldo E. Nelson lectureship at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children; Leonard Apt Lectureship of the American Academy of Pediatrics; Bank Street College of Education Distinguished Lectureship; Stoll Distinguished Lectureship at Pennsylvania State University; Frontiers of Science Lecture, American Psychiatric Association; and Sidney Berman Award presented by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

She currently serves on the National Board of the Institute for Educational Sciences of the Department of Education and on the National Board of Recordings for the Blind and Dyslexic. Dr. Shaywitz served on the National Reading Panel and the Committee to Prevent Reading Difficulties in Young Children of the National Research Council. Most recently, Dr. Shaywitz co-chaired the National Research Council Committee on Gender Differences in the Careers of Science, Engineering and Mathematics Faculty. She has also served on the Advisory Council of the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke (NINDS), the National Research Council Committee on Women in Science and Engineering and the Scientific Advisory Board of the March of Dimes.