Richard "Dick" Allington, a nationally known scholar in reading instruction and winner of numerous awards in the field of literacy, served as a professor of reading education at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville from 2005 to 2017. He is past-president of the International Literacy (Reading) Association. Prior to his appointment at UT, he held faculty positions at the University of Albany (where he chaired the Reading Education program) and at the University of Florida where he held the Rose Fein Distinguished Professorship.