Program Leaders
Carol Donovan, PhD
Director
Dr. Carol Donovan is a professor of Literacy Education and currently serves as the chair of the Department of Special Education. She has been at the University for over 20 years teaching undergraduate and graduate foundations of reading and reading and language arts methods courses and providing professional development in reading and writing instruction, including reading intervention. She completed her CALT certification in 2024 and provides dyslexia therapy at the UA Reading Clinic on campus.
As director of the UA CALT program, Dr. Donovan will be the contact for your questions prior to acceptance and related to the program. You can email her at cdonovan@ua.edu.
Rhonda Smith, CALT-QI
Qualified Instructor (QI)
Rhonda Smith is the director of Dyslexia Education for the Dyslexia Resource Center. She received her undergraduate degree from The University of Alabama and her master’s in education in dyslexia therapy from Mississippi College. She is a Certified Academic Language Therapist and Qualified Instructor. Smith has served as Dyslexia Interventionist for East and West Elementary School in Cullman City and serves on the Boaz City Board of Education. She also serves on the Alabama Literacy Task Force, as past president of the Alabama Academic Language Therapist Association (ALTA) Chapter and as a member of the legislative committee for ALTA national. Smith and her husband live in Boaz and have three children. She is an avid Alabama football fan, loves the beach and enjoys the summertime.
Accreditation
Accrediting and Credentialing Bodies
A Certified Academic Language Therapist (CALT), or dyslexia therapist, specializes in instruction for children and adults with dyslexia, a language-based disorder that effects a person’s ability to read and spell. As specialists, CALTs have specific training beyond that of a classroom teacher that enables them to address specific needs that dyslexia creates for children as they learn to read and spell. Dyslexia therapists may work in schools or in clinical settings and can be graduates of education programs or speech and language therapy programs. The International Multisensory Language Education Council (IMSLEC; imslec.org) along with Academic Language Therapy Association (ALTA; altaread.org) serve as the professional accrediting and credentialing organizations for dyslexia specialists. IMSLEC provides accreditation for programs offering CALT training and ALTA provides the credentialing exams following training programs.
Partnership with the Dyslexia Resource Center (DRC)
A specialized accreditation agency, IMSLEC, exists and is required for offering the program independently. See imslec.org/standards.asp for more information. The University of Alabama plans to obtain accreditation after the required minimum number of years of program completers is reached. Until then, the UA CALT program will partner with the DRC as a satellite site. The partnership with the Dyslexia Resource Center (DRC: dyslexia1n5.com), which is an accredited CALT program provider with a history of success, allows the UA CALT program to serve as a DRC satellite site (i.e. a permanent site away from the primary site where an identical IMSLEC-accredited training course is consistently offered by qualified satellite site instructors) and offer the UA CALT pathway at The University of Alabama.