Billie J. Enz

Billie J. Enz is a Senior Academic Professional and a faculty member in Early Childhood Education. She earned her Ph.D. in Elementary Educational and Reading from Arizona State University. Dr. Enz has two strands of research: 1) teacher development and issues of teacher retention, and 2) family literacy. She has written extensively in both areas and is considered an expert in teacher induction and family literacy and is considered a national and international leader in early childhood family literacy

Nationally, Dr. Enz served for three years as the president of the Family Literacy Commission for the International Reading Association. She has also served as president of the Young Children Literacy Development special interest group, and is currently a member of the Early Childhood Commission for the International Reading Association. She is also a board member for the Early Literacy Institute for High Scope.

Dr. Enz is also the president of the board for New Directions Institute. This non-profit agency has developed numerous initiatives to serve Arizona’s youngest citizens, children from birth to age five. New Directions initiatives include the First Teacher Project that targets parents of pre-natal through toddlers and the Leaps and Bounds Project which provides outreach to families of preschoolers. Dr. Enz has written the curriculum for both of the projects, conducts training, and has worked with doctoral students to design and conduct research on the impact of these projects. All of these initiatives have been developed with the assistance of teachers and administrators in local school districts.

Dr. Enz, is also a co-principle investigator for the Navajo Early Educator Project – a 2.5 million Early Reading First Grant was awarded to the Navajo Nation. The Navajo Early-Childhood Educators Partnership is a joint effort of the Navajo Nation, the Southwest Institute for Families and Children with Special Needs, New Mexico State University and Arizona State University. The project has provided professional development training to 160 teachers serving 3,000 Navajo children. It also will establish community-school-family teams to help ensure that children are ready to succeed when they enter school.