Nonie Lesaux

Nonie K. Lesaux

Bio and Research Interests

Nonie K. Lesaux is the Dean of the Faculty and Roy E. Larsen Professor of Education and Human Development at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE). 

A member of the HGSE faculty since 2003, Lesaux’s research focuses on strategies and innovations to improve learning opportunities and literacy outcomes for children and youth. Her teaching focuses on literacy development and reform, early learning, and leading system-level change.

Lesaux works with school districts to investigate language, reading, and social-emotional development; classroom quality and academic growth; and strategies to accelerate language and reading comprehension. With states and communities, she brings tools and concepts from improvement science to strengthen literacy plans and policy initiatives, grade-level reading campaigns, and birth-to-eight early learning initiatives. She is co-director of the Saul Zaentz Early Education Initiative at HGSE, which addresses the pervasive global challenge of simultaneously scaling and improving the quality of early education.