Dr. Mary Jo Fresch is Professor Emeritus of the Department of Teaching and Learning at The Ohio State University. Fresch began her career as a 3rd grade teacher in Kent, Ohio. She taught adult literacy at the University of Akron and reading methods at the University of Nebraska (Lincoln). Fresch completed her Doctorate in Language, Literature, and Culture at The Ohio State University. She moved to Melbourne, Australia where she taught for three years in teacher education at Deakin University and The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. Fresch returned to Columbus in 1995. She joined the faculty at The Ohio State University at Marion, where she taught in teacher education for 20 years. Her research focus is the developmental aspects of becoming a reader, writer, and speller. Her articles have appeared in peer reviewed journals and she has written books for teachers to assist in their literacy instruction. Fresch's professional development presentations have taken her across the United States, as well as abroad to New Zealand, Australia, Argentina, Scotland, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Jamaica, and Canada.