Kathryn H. Au is Dai Ho Chun Professor of Education in the College of Education at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Previously, she worked as a researcher, curriculum developer, teacher educator, and classroom teacher at the Kamehameha Elementary Education Program (KEEP) in Honolulu. 

Kathy is currently directing a teacher education program aimed at increasing the number of Native Hawaiian teachers in schools in their own communities.  She serves as university coordinator for the Language Arts Standards Network, a partnership with the Hawaii State Department of Education, assisting about 90 public schools to improve students' literacy achievement through standards.  

Kathy's research interest is the school literacy development of students of diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. She has published over 70 articles on this topic, as well as a textbook, Literacy Instruction in Multicultural Settings.

Kathy serves or has served on the editorial advisory boards of the Reading Research Quarterly, The Reading Teacher, the Journal of Literacy Research, Educational Researcher, and the Review of Educational Research. She was editor for the professional materials column of Language Arts and is now editing a similar column for The Reading Teacher. She has been elected president of the National Reading Conference and a vice president of the American Educational Research Association.

Kathy served as a member of the board of directors of the International Reading Association.  She led efforts to establish the Five Star Policy Recognition Program, to call attention to states with exemplary reading policies.  She drafted IRA's resolution on cultural awareness. She has been the guest editor for a themed issue of The Reading Teacher and has served on many IRA committees. She is past president of the Aloha State Council and was the program chair for Hawaii's first state IRA conference.