Nonie K. Lesaux

Lesaux earned a B.A. with honors in psychology from Mount Allison University in 1999. She then attended the University of British Columbia, where she received a M.A. in 2001 and a Ph.D. in educational psychology and special education in 2003. Her doctoral thesis was a five-year longitudinal study on the development of reading in children from diverse linguistic backgrounds. Following her doctorate, she was a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of British Columbia and the British Columbia Children's Hospital Centre for Community Child Health Research. == Career ==

Lesaux joined the faculty of the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) in 2003 as an assistant professor. She was appointed interim dean of HGSE on July 1, 2024, succeeding Bridget Terry Long. In March 2025, she was named the permanent dean of the school. Research and policy work Lesaux's research focuses on the language and literacy skills of children from various backgrounds, often in urban settings. With Stephanie M. Jones, Lesaux co-directs the Saul Zaentz Early Education Initiative at HGSE. Lesaux has been actively involved in state and national education policy. From 2015 to 2022, she chaired the Massachusetts Board of Early Education and Care. She also served on the U.S. Department of Education's Reading First Advisory Committee and the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council's Committee on the Science of Children Birth to Age 8. Her 2010 state literacy report, Turning the Page: Refocusing Massachusetts for Reading Success, influenced the passage of a state third-grade reading proficiency bill. She currently serves as an expert consultant to the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. == Selected works ==

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