Awards
The Dr. Richard W. Woodcock Award for Innovations in Ability Testing, Research, and Scholarship was created to recognize the work of Dr. Woodcock and his influence on the State of the Art of SLD conference. Everything we do in the field of psychological assessment is grounded in his work.
Richard W. Woodcock
2024
Richard W. Woodcock, EdD, has an extensive background in education and psychology. He has held a variety of positions, including elementary school teacher, school psychologist, director of special education, university professor, and editor of a test publishing company. He earned his doctorate from the University of Oregon with a dual major in Statistics and Psycho-education, and he completed a post-doctoral fellowship in neuropsychology at Tufts University School of Medicine. He has published more than 135 professional books and articles.
Since 1957, Dr. Woodcock has held positions and appointments at Western Oregon University, the University of Northern Colorado, George Peabody College for Teachers, the University of Arizona, the University of Southern California, the University of Virginia, and Vanderbilt University. He is currently serving as a research professor in the Department of Psychology and Philosophy at Texas Woman’s University. Dr. Woodcock is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and the American Academy of School Psychology and a Diplomate of the American Board of Professional Psychology. In 2013 the Texas Statewide Evaluation Project Conference honored Dr. Woodcock with its first Lifetime Achievement Award.
Among Dr. Woodcock’s publications are the Colorado Braille Battery, the Peabody Rebus Reading Program, the Goldman-Fristoe-Woodcock Auditory Skills Test Battery, the Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests®–Revised, the Woodcock-Johnson® Psycho-Educational Battery–Revised, the Batería Woodcock-Muñoz: Pruebas de habilidad cognitiva–Revisada, the Batería Woodcock-Muñoz: Pruebas de aprovechamiento–Revisada, the Woodcock Language Proficiency Battery™–Revised, the Scales of Independent Behavior–Revised™, the Woodcock-Muñoz Language Survey®, the Woodcock Diagnostic Reading Battery, the Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Cognitive Abilities, the Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Achievement, the Dean-Woodcock™ Neuropsychological Assessment System, the Bilingual Verbal Ability Tests™, the Batería III Woodcock-Muñoz®: Pruebas de habilidad cognitiva, the Batería III Woodcock-Muñoz: Pruebas de aprovechamiento, and the Woodcock-Muñoz Language Survey–Revised.
Nancy Mather
2025
Nancy Mather is a Professor Emerita at the University of Arizona in Tucson. She has served as a learning disabilities teacher, a diagnostician, a university professor, and an educational consultant. She has published numerous articles and books and conducts workshops on assessment and instruction both nationally and internationally. Her most recent book on dyslexia is Essentials of Dyslexia: Assessment and Intervention, 2nd ed. (Mather & Wendling, 2024). She is a co-author of several widely used tests, including the Woodcock-Johnson IV. In addition, Dr. Mather and her co-authors have recently completed the Tests of Dyslexia (Mather, McCallum, Bell, & Wendling, 2024), a comprehensive assessment that is designed to help identify dyslexia in individuals of all ages.
Dr. Kevin McGrew
2026
Dr. Kevin McGrew is the Owner and Director of the Institute for Applied Psychometrics (IAP) and Adjunct Research Professor at the Institute on Community Integration (University of Minnesota). He has been a practicing school psychologist (12 years), a Professor of Applied Psychology at St. Cloud State University (MN; 10 years), and a Visiting Professor in Educational Psychology at the University of Minnesota (19 years). He conducts research regarding human intelligence, intelligence testing, adaptive behavior, and applied psychometrics. His most recent interests include his proposed Cognitive-Affective-Motivation Model of Learning (CAMML) and network theories of intelligence and psychometric network analysis of cognitive and achievement tests. He is a coauthor of the Woodcock-Johnson III and IV assessment batteries. He has authored numerous journal articles, book chapters, and books based on his research. McGrew frequently serves as a consulting expert to the courts regarding the measurement of intelligence and psychometric issues relevant to Atkins intellectual disability death penalty cases.
Barbara J. Wendling
2026
Barbara J. Wendling is an educational consultant with expertise in assessment, test interpretation, academic interventions, and dyslexia. She holds an MA in Learning Disabilities from Northeastern University and has over 17 years of experience as an educator and diagnostician in public schools and 20 years of experience in educational and assessment publishing. In addition, she was the Education Director for the Woodcock-Muñoz Foundation and Director of the Woodcock Institute.
Barbara has worked with the Woodcock-Johnson author team since the Woodcock-Johnson –Revised. She coauthored the Examiner Manuals for the WJ IV, the Woodcock Interpretation and Instructional Interventions Program (WIIIP) for the WJ III and WJ IV, and is coauthor of the WJ V. In addition, Barbara has coauthored several books related to the use and interpretation of the Woodcock-Johnson: Essentials of WJ III Tests of Cognitive Abilities, Essentials of WJ III Tests of Achievement, and Essentials of WJ IV Tests of Achievement as well as two WJ-IV related chapters in Contemporary Intellectual Assessment, Theories, Tests, and Issues, Fourth Edition.
Wendling has coauthored several books on assessment and intervention including Essentials of Evidence-Based Academic Interventions, Writing Assessment and Instruction for Students with Learning Disabilities, and Essentials of Dyslexia: Assessment and Intervention. Most recently, Barbara is a coauthor of the Tests of Dyslexia and Essentials of the Tests of Dyslexia (in press).