PAOLA PILONIETA

TPI-US REVIEWER

Paola Pilonieta serves as a reviewer with TPI-US and supports the delivery of technical assistance to educator preparation programs. She brings extensive expertise in literacy instruction, early literacy, curriculum design, multilingual learner, and educator preparation. Dr. Pilonieta holds a Ph.D. in Reading, a master’s degree in Reading and Learning Disabilities, and an ESOL endorsement.

Dr. Pilonieta has been a professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte since 2007 and serves as the director of the Reading Education Minor. She began her teaching career as a first-grade teacher in a Catholic school in Miami, Florida. While teaching first grade, Paola completed her Ph.D. program and collected data that would eventually be published in The Reading Teacher and Reading Psychology.

Since arriving at UNC Charlotte, Dr. Pilonieta has primarily taught undergraduate and graduate reading courses focused on early literacy (concept about print, phonological awareness, phonics, and fluency) as well as reading courses focusing on vocabulary, comprehension instruction, and assessment. She has taught in a variety of formats, including face-to-face, asynchronous, hybrid, with embedded clinicals at elementary schools, and with a co-teacher. In 2012 she led efforts to create the Reading Education Minor at UNC Charlotte, and since then has led several literacy-focused curricular revision efforts in her department. At her institution, she is also responsible for curriculum alignment efforts to meet state and national literacy standards

Dr. Pilonieta’s research agenda focuses on emergent and early literacy and teacher education. She is particularly interested in exploring how young children construct meaning during read-alouds and partner reading and supporting comprehension instruction for elementary school readers. Dr. Pilonieta has authored over 40 publications in journals such as Reading and Writing Quarterly, Early Childhood Education Journal, Young Children, and Exceptional Children, and has delivered more than 40 conference presentations and workshops. She has also served as Co-Editor of Literacy Research and Instruction, a highly regarded peer-reviewed journal in the field of literacy. Dr. Pilonieta also served as a UNC System Literacy Fellow where she co-led the development of the UNC System Literacy Framework which integrates the Science of Reading into educator preparation programs across the state.