Nora Chahbazi

Nora Chahbazi is an educator, literacy innovator, and founder and CEO of EBLI (Evidence-Based Literacy Instruction), an organization dedicated to transforming reading, spelling, and writing instruction through evidence-based practices. Her journey into literacy education began in the mid-1990s when her daughter's struggles with reading inspired her to seek a more effective approach to teaching literacy. Drawing on her background as a neonatal intensive care nurse and her commitment to understanding how children learn, she developed EBLI, a speech-to-print, linguistic phonics methodology grounded in the Science of Reading and the Science of Learning. Since establishing the Ounce of Prevention Reading Center in 1999 and launching EBLI in 2003, Chahbazi has devoted her career to ensuring that every learner has access to effective literacy instruction.

Over the past two decades, Chahbazi has trained thousands of teachers, paraprofessionals, parents, and literacy professionals across all 50 U.S. states and 26 countries. Through school consulting, professional development, and classroom coaching, she has helped educators implement EBLI's streamlined instructional approach for students of all ages, including those with dyslexia and learners who have not responded to traditional interventions. The effectiveness of EBLI has been documented through studies involving more than 2,500 students from 2005 to 2025, earning the program an ESSA Tier 3 (Promising Evidence) designation. Her work has also been featured in the documentary The Truth About Reading, and she has shared her expertise at national and international literacy conferences, including the World Literacy Summit in Oxford, England.

Beyond developing an instructional framework, Chahbazi is a passionate advocate for educational excellence and equitable literacy outcomes. She continues to mentor educators through coaching programs, online communities, and professional training, emphasizing the importance of independent research, evidence-based decision-making, and maintaining high expectations for every learner. Her mission is to reduce the cognitive burden often created by traditional reading instruction while equipping teachers with practical, research-informed strategies that enable students to achieve lasting success in reading, writing, and spelling.