Retired Professor, Fordham University

Valerie Rowe is a reading specialist who spent many years teaching dyslexic students and students with learning disabilities in grades two through eight. After receiving her PhD from Fordham University’s School of Education, Valerie took a role training teachers to teach reading in a historically low performing school in the South Bronx. Later she moved on to a full time faculty position at Fordham’s Graduate School of Education directing the Master of Science in Teaching (MST) Childhood program where she taught and mentored individuals embarking on a career teaching children at the elementary school level.

Valerie currently serves on the Boards of Directors of the following non-profits:  Dancing Dreams, a program that provides dance classes to children with physical disabilities. Overcoming Obstacles which provides teachers with a life skills curriculum for students grades K-12, The Museum of the City of New York (MCNY) which has been telling New York’s story for 100 years and  Student Sponsor Partners(SSP),  which provides scholarships and mentoring to academically and financially at risk students through their high school years.