The Colorado Council for Learning Disabilities has named Lynne Fitzhugh, lecturer, director, and founder of Colorado College's Reading Institute and Literacy Specialist Program, as the recipient of its 2018 Professional of the Year Award.

Fitzhugh, a licensed dyslexia therapist, is a nationally recognized expert in dyslexia and related learning disabilities, structured linguistics, and literacy. The founder and president of the Colorado Literacy and Learning Center, she holds a master's degree and Ph.D. in experimental psychology from Southern Methodist University.

In 2008 Fitzhugh established the Reading Institute and Literacy Intervention Specialist Certification Program in conjunction with the Master of Arts in Teaching degree offered by CC's Education Department. The intensive two-year program enables graduates to earn national certification with the Academic Language Therapy Association. The program earned accreditation from the International Multisensory Structured Language Education Council, becoming the first and only accredited center in Colorado.

"In my role, I am able to share my love of structural linguistics and reading instruction," says Fitzhugh. "My goal is that graduates completing this program are the most highly qualified reading teachers in the country, providing instruction that is clinically diagnostic and prescriptive, multisensory, intensive, and results driven."

The program developed at Colorado College by Fitzhugh was named by the International Dyslexia Association in 2012 as one of only nine programs at institutions of higher education in the United States that met the organization's "Knowledge and Practice Standards for teachers of Reading."

Fitzhugh also established Colorado Department of Education approval for Reading Teacher and Reading Specialist Endorsements, one of only four Reading Specialist approved programs in Colorado.

The Colorado Council for Learning Disabilities award is presented for outstanding performance and commitment by a professional who works in the field of learning disabilities in a role outside the classroom, and for impacting the lives of persons with learning disabilities.