Thel­ma Reese, Ed. D., retired pro­fes­sor of Eng­lish and of Edu­ca­tion, and edu­ca­tion con­sul­tant cre­at­ed the Advi­so­ry Coun­cil for Hooked on Phon­ics and was its spokesper­son in the ​’90’s. She was direc­tor of the May­or’s Com­mis­sion on Lit­er­a­cy for the City of Philadel­phia and orga­nized the World Sym­po­sium on Fam­i­ly Lit­er­a­cy at UNESCO in Paris in 1994. Mar­ried to Har­vey Reese for 62 years.