Mark Emblidge

Mark Emblidge
Born	1953 (age 63–64)
Residence	Richmond, Virginia
Nationality	United States
Education	B.A. 1975, M.Ed. 2004, Ph.D. 2005
Alma mater	Gordon College University of Virginia
Occupation	Associate Professor, Teaching and Learning, Virginia Commonwealth University Director, Literacy Institute Executive Director, Virginia Literacy Foundation Executive Director, Communities in Schools, Virginia
Political party	Democrat
Board member of	Library Board of Virginia
Spouse(s)	Roberta (Robbie)
Children	Catherine, Caroline
Website	http://www.soe.vcu.edu/faculty_n_staff/facpages/memblidge.html

Mark E. Emblidge (born 1953) has worked on policy issues on behalf of literacy in the U.S. for at-risk populations from childhood through adulthood.

Mark E. Emblidge, Ph.D., was born in upstate New York in 1953. His family is of Dutch Irish descent. He graduated from Oakton High School in Vienna, Virginia, and received a BA in political science at Gordon College, Massachusetts, and a master's degree and doctorate in education at the University of Virginia.

Emblidge currently serves as an affiliate professor at the School of Education at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). In 2004 he became the Director of the Literacy Institute at VCU. Established to provide research and development projects that study the problems of illiteracy, the Literacy Institute has attracted three Early Reading First grants from the U.S. Department of Education from 2004 through 2011 totaling over $12 million. These grants, which focused on children and adults in poverty, resulted in an innovative project called "Excell" (Excellence in Children’s Early Language and Literacy), which promotes early language and literacy acquisition for pre-K students in various communities and schools throughout Richmond, Virginia. Emblidge served as the three grants' principal investigator.

Overseeing a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Grant in 1999, he became the founding director of Communities in Schools (CIS) of Virginia, which he started with U.S. Senator Mark Warner and former U.S. Senator George Allen. CIS develops alternative remedies for at-risk juvenile students who are in danger of dropping out of high school.

Pursuing his lifelong interest in promoting literacy across the lifespan, Emblidge became the founding Executive Director of the Virginia Literacy Foundation (VLF) in Richmond, Virginia, which he established with Virginia’s former first lady, Jeannie Baliles in 1987, a position he continues to hold to this day. The VLF provides grants and technical advice and training to Virginia’s community-based and faith-based literacy organizations.

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