Maya Payne Smart, author of Reading for Our Lives: A Literacy Action Plan from Birth to Six, helps parents nurture, teach, and advocate for children on the road to reading. Her website, MayaSmart.com, publishes new book lists, literacy activities, and other free family resources weekly to help parents play their dual roles as first teachers and educational advocates. She holds a master’s degree in journalism from the Medill School at Northwestern University and a bachelor’s in social studies with honors from Harvard University. She serves as affiliated faculty in Educational Policy and Leadership in the College of Education at Marquette University.