TWU University Advancement - Foundation Annual Report 2023

Left: The late Dr. Billie J. Askew
Dr. Billie J. Askew Chair Endowment
Established and Funded January 2023
Literacy trailblazer and philanthropist Dr. Gay Su Pinnell
has honored a fellow early-intervention literacy advocate
by establishing the Dr. Billie J. Askew Endowed Chair in Reading Recovery at Texas Woman’s.
Named after the late founder of TWU’s Reading Recovery program, TWU Distinguished
Alumna and Cornaro Professor Emerita of Reading, the $1 million gift will bolster the
Department of Literacy and Learning and preserve Askew’s legacy. Professor Emerita Pinnell
serves on the faculty in the Department of Literacy and Learning at The Ohio State University.
The early literacy intervention Askew brought to TWU in 1989 is based on an individualized
approach to reading that has helped struggling students in more than 50 school districts
across a dozen states learn to read. Since 1984, when Reading Recovery was introduced to
the United States, 2.5 million Americans have learned to read through the program.
The new endowed chair recognizes Askew’s leadership and Texas Woman’s role in promoting
the Reading Recovery program both nationally and internationally.
Billie and I were colleagues for almost 40
years. She not only was a scholar and a
researcher, but she was dedicated and
passionate, an advocate for literacy and
children and a very warm and
generous person.
- Dr. Gay Su Pinnell
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