A mother’s question became a national and international literacy mission.

Clarice L. Jackson is an author, nationally recognized literacy and dyslexia advocate, speaker, ordained minister, and institutional founder whose work has spent more than two decades pressing one demanding proposition: children deserve to be taught to read effectively.

Her advocacy helped move dyslexia into national civil rights conversation. In 2014, Jackson authored the NAACP national dyslexia resolution, calling attention to the educational and civil rights consequences of unidentified and unsupported dyslexia. Today, she serves on the International Dyslexia Association’s Definition Steering Committee helping shape the revision of the definition of dyslexia, including leadership as Co-Chair for Parent and Legal Advocacy.

Jackson is Founder and CEO of the Institute for Black Literacy, Founder and Host of the Black Literacy Matters® Conference, and Founder and Executive Director of Voice Advocacy Center. She also serves in literacy, library, and public leadership roles in Nebraska, connecting research, policy, advocacy, families, and the institutions responsible for teaching children to read.

Her voice and work have been featured by NPR, Fox News, Roland Martin Unfiltered, and The 74. Her literacy leadership now extends beyond the United States into Africa and the African diaspora, including work in Kenya to build dyslexia awareness, educator training, family knowledge, screening, intervention, and sustainable literacy infrastructure.