Senior Director, Program

She/Her

Molly leads the early literacy work at Teaching Lab, specifically focused on supporting high quality literacy initiatives developed for and with teachers and including instruction, planning, assessment, and analysis. This work is laser focused on ensuring all students read by third grade, and, like Molly’s career in education, aims to achieve educational equity and racial justice.

Prior to joining Teaching Lab, Molly Branson Thayer was the Senior Director of Cultivate Learning at the University of Washington’s College of Education where she led efforts supporting P-3 education, early learning initiatives, and partnered with the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction on early literacy including serving on the Governor’s Dyslexia Council.

She spent a decade in Chicago as the Director of Literacy for the Urban Education Institute (UEI) and Senior Advisor and Co-Founder of UChicago Impact at the University of Chicago. While there, Molly provided strategic leadership in the development and implementation of the STEP™ literacy assessment, professional development, and data management system, which is used in elementary schools around the country.