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Dr. Maribeth C. Schmitt is the Jean Adamson Stanley Professor of Literacy and the director of the Center for Literacy Education and Research at Purdue University, where she established the Reading Recovery University Training Center in 1992. Prior to coming to Purdue, she spent five years on the faculty at DePauw University, where she also served as director of teacher professional licensure. Her research on the role of metacognition in literacy instruction earned her a national award for her early work and she has continued to explore the area of children's strategic processing and metacognitive assessment. She has published and presented widely on those topics, including a recently published chapter in a book titled Metacognition in Literacy Learning. Professor Schmitt is well-known nationally and internationally as a distinguished speaker on topics such as advocacy efforts for children’s rights to literacy, follow-up studies of sustained progress, and instructional strategies that lead to independent problem solving. She is the lead author of Changing Futures: The Influence of Reading Recovery in the United States, a critically important book that substantiates the effectiveness of implementation of Reading Recovery as a preventive early intervention in literacy learning and instruction that serves as a response-to-intervention initiative for learners in need of support.
 
Professor Schmitt served on the editorial review board of The Reading Teacher, as chief editor of Literacy Teaching and Learning: An International Journal of Early Reading and Writing, and is currently a member of the review board for the Journal of Reading Recovery. She spent six years as chair of the National Reading Conference Student Outstanding Research Award. She is a past-president of the Reading Recovery Council of North America where she also served as secretary of the executive committee of the Board of Directors for four years, being highly involved in strategic planning for the organization. Professor Schmitt also served for six years as assistant head of Purdue’s Department of Curriculum and Instruction and was awarded the department’s Outstanding Engagement Award for her leadership in sustained collaborative partnerships with a variety of educational entities. She received the Indiana State Reading Association's Celebrate Literacy Award and was honored in a concurrent resolution passed by the Indiana General Assembly for her statewide contributions to literacy learning on behalf of children needing Reading Recovery. These awards recognized her efforts in spearheading a legislative initiative that has resulted in expenditures of more than $15 million dollars of state funding for Reading Recovery training and continued professional development. Professor Schmitt holds three degrees from Purdue University culminating in a Ph.D. in literacy and language education with a minor in instructional design  in 1987.

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