Dr. Hiller A. Spires
Friday Institute Research Fellow

Dr. Spires was the founding director for the Friday Institute and is now serving in the role of research fellow. She joined NC State University's College of Education in 1987 as an assistant professor in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction and was promoted to full professor in 1999. Prior to coming to NC State, she was the Director of the University's Academic Skills Program at the University of South Carolina.

Dr. Spires has written extensively in the area of literacy and technology integration. For her cumulative work in this area, she received the International Reading Association Award for Outstanding Writing in the Field of College Reading in 1998 and NC State's Outstanding Alumni Award in Outreach and Service in 1997 for providing professional development seminars for teachers. From 1994-1998 she co-directed the North Carolina Accelerated Schools Project, which was affiliated with Stanford University. Dr. Spires was an IHE delegate for the National Forum on the Recruitment, Preparation and Support of Persons of Color in Teaching in Washington DC in 1996. More recently she was awarded a fellowship for the Change Leadership Program at the Harvard Business School and for Leading Creatively at the Center for Creative Leadership.

Building on her previous research related to cognitive and socio-cognitive aspects of literacy, Dr. Spires studies the integration of emerging technologies in order to illustrate research-based, best practices for digital literacy learning. She conducts research in the area of game-based literacies and learning on the NSF funded project, Crystal Island and leads the Friday Institute’s New Literacies Collaborative.

Dr. Spires received a Ph.D. in Literacy Education from the University of South Carolina in 1986.

Visit Dr. Spires' home page here.