Members
The Readability Consortium’s industry and nonprofit full member board steers our collaborative research, with guidance from affiliate members, research associates, and our growing community.
Interested? Join us in bringing readability to all.
Contributors
Our University of Central Florida (UCF) Research Team works directly with member individual contributors to support our mission and execute on identified priorities.
Senior Researcher
Nilsu Atilgan, PhD
Graduate Student Researcher, University of Northern Colorado
Caterina Azzarello
SME, Typography for Good, UCF
Samuel Berlow
As a school board president, father, coach, and CEO, Berlow has seen how information design can affect the transfer of information. Researching what parameters influence speed and comprehension has been an interest to Sam ever since his children started to read. In order to help his children read more efficiently, he would print out reading assignments in different sizes and in different fonts to see if it would help his kids.
Educational Content Writer
Catherine Bordeau
Catherine is a content developer and instructional designer focused on readability and language learning in education.
Research Scientist, Adobe
Zoya Bylinskii, PhD
Zoya is a Research Scientist in the Creative Intelligence Lab at Adobe Research (in Cambridge, MA) and an Associate of the Institute of Applied Computational Science at Harvard University. Zoya received her Computer Science Ph.D. and M.Sc. from MIT in 2018 and 2015, respectively. Zoya works at the interface of human perception & cognition, computer vision, and human-computer interaction. She is leading the readability research effort from within Adobe Research and is actively hiring interns in this space.
Lead, Applied Research, UCF
Steven Clapp, PhD
Steven Clapp, PhD, is a postdoctoral scholar in The Readability Consortium at the University of Central Florida. He is trained as a human-centered process design leader and was a management consultant in this regard for many years at some of North America’s top financial services firms and internet-based B2B companies. Steve was also a visiting professor of operations management and management science at the University of North Florida’s Coggin College of Business. Steve’s academic research focuses on creating holistic work environments that lead to increased employee well-being and productivity.
Lead Operations Manager, Google
Dave Crossland
Dave is lead operations manager for Google Fonts, and has commissioned thousands of fonts from hundreds of designers for dozens of writing systems, plus font editors, educational resources and live events. The way type design combines visual culture, language, technology, business, history – and its ubiquity – make this field something he finds endlessly fascinating.
Co-founder, Readability Matters
Kathy Crowley
Kathy brought her high-tech and non-profit experience to found Readability Matters, a Tech-for-Good non-profit focused on shifting reading outcomes for adults and children. Previously, Kathy held global technology leadership roles at Hewlett Packard Company and served on the boards of several international non-profits, including a $2.2M Gates-funded cross-organizational program dedicated to advancing women’s economic empowerment.
Research Scientist, UCF
Stephanie Day, PhD
Stephanie is the Associate Director of the Readability Consortium and a research scientist at the University of Central Florida. She received her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology at Florida State University. Her research centers on examining links between children’s learning difficulties, individual differences, the classroom environment, and achievement. Stephanie has over 18 years of experience managing large-scale research studies focused on building technology to improve literacy outcomes for students in elementary school and is leading the TRC readability education research in K-12 populations. She also leads research evaluating the use of Generative AI in education.
SME, Dobres Consulting, UCF
Jonathan Dobres, PhD
Jon’s background in advanced data analytics and scientific communication and extensive experience investigating a wide array of user experience issues includes past work investigating the impact of typographic design. Passionate about data science and statistical analysis, Dr. Dobres often combines large, disparate data sources into a cohesive story or developing custom software tools for analytical purposes. His publication record includes high quality research in the fields of visual perception, interface design, and related areas.
Laboratory Associate, UCF
Amy E. Giroux
Amy is a laboratory associate at the University of Central Florida focusing on readability in education and extended reality.
Co-founder, Readability Matters
Marjorie Jordan
Marjorie is a global high-tech industry leader with a track record of developing multi-disciplinary teams to deliver on high-impact strategic priorities. Her interest in the intersection of technology and reading led her to found Readability Matters, a tech-for-good non-profit engaging cross-sector organizations to deliver personalized reading environments, empowering everyone everywhere to achieve more.
Researcher, Izmir University of Economics
Mert Küçük
Mert is one of the developers of the VRL in Pavlovia platform. He is a PhD Candidate at Izmir University of Economics studying brain oscillations, aging, and visual perception.
Graduate Research Assistant, UCF
Md Mamunur Rashid
Rashid is a PhD Student at the University of Central Florida applying AI and ML to readability and neuro-ergonomics for health care systems.
Lead UX Researcher, Google
Hilary Palmén, PhD
Hilary (she/her) is the Lead User Experience Researcher on the Google Fonts team. Hilary has worked at Google for 3 years and recently joined the Google Fonts team to help improve global literacy. Hilary’s previous roles have included Design Director for Honeywell’s Build Solutions, Lead Researcher in Microsoft, and Higher Scientist in the UK Ministry of Defence.
Test Implementation Assistant, University of Glasgow
Veronica Penkova, MSc
Veronica Penkova is a graduate student at the University of Glasgow who assists with readability test implementation in Pavlovia, Prolific, and Qualtrics. She is interested in readability in children and implementing accessibility user research.
Faculty, UCF
Ben D. Sawyer, PhD
Ben (he/his) is Director of The Readability Consortium and The Virtual Readability Laboratory, where he leads teams rethinking how information flows from human to machine, and back. He is Faculty at UCF in the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Systems within the College of Computer Engineering and Computer Science, and The Institute for Simulation and Training. His previous positions include MIT’s Center for Transportation and Logistics, and Air Force Research Laboratory 711th Human Performance Wing. More at bendsawyer.com.
Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Adobe
Rick Treitman
Rick is currently Entrepreneur-in-Residence for Document Cloud – specializing in Education. Rick’s work as EIR involves early-stage development of tools and solutions for Adobe’s customers. Current projects include readability controls in Acrobat, working with non-profits such as Readability Matters, and establishing and working closely with the Virtual Readability Lab at the University of Central Florida.