After teaching in elementary- and middle-school classrooms for a number of years, Lee Galda received her Ph.D. in English Education from New York University. She is the Marguerite Henry Professor of Children's Literature, Emerita, at the University of Minnesota where she taught undergraduate and graduate courses in children's and young adult literature. Dr. Galda was a member of the International Literacy Association and the United States Board on Books for Young People, working on various committees related to literature. She was children's books department editor for The Reading Teacher from 1989 to 1993; a member of the 2003 Newbery Committee; a member of the International Literacy Association Book Award Selection Committee for five years, co-chairing that committee in 2010-2011 and 2011-2012; and a member of the USBBY Bridge to Understanding Award Committee in 2008 through 2011, chairing that committee in 2011. She sat on the review boards of several professional journals and on the editorial boards of Children's Literature in Education and Journal of Children's Literature. Author of numerous articles, books, and book chapters about children's literature and response, she was lead author of the first chapter on children's literature appearing in the HANDBOOK OF READING RESEARCH (VOLUME III). In 2011, Dr. Galda received the International Literacy Association Arbuthnot Award for excellence in teaching children's literature.