Charles A. Hughes, PhD
Charlie Hughes worked as a special education teacher and teacher consultant for 13 years beginning in 1971. After earning his doctorate in 1985 from the University of Florida he joined the Special Education Faculty at Penn State University where in 2020, he retired with the rank of Professor Emeritus of Special Education. As an academic, his scholarly interests focused on the design, validation, and implementation of instructional interventions that help students with learning and behavior problems succeed in academic settings. At the time of his retirement, he had published approximately 120 journal articles, books, book chapters, and curriculum materials. He researched and coauthored (with Drs. Donald Deshler, Jean Schumaker) five of the instructional books included in the Strategic Instruction Model (SIM) developed in conjunction with the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning (KU-CRL) where he was a Senior Research Associate.
Charlie was Editor-in-Chief for two professional journals: The Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability and Learning Disabilities Research and Practice. He served on an additional dozen journal editorial boards including Exceptional Children, Journal of Learning Disabilities, Teacher Education and Special Education, and Learning Disability Quarterly. He served as both President and Executive Director for the Council for Exceptional Children’s Division for Learning Disabilities (DLD) and was State President for the Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders in North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
In addition to delivering over 350 conference presentations and professional development sessions in 33 States and Puerto Rico, he provided consultation to various organizations including the National Board of Medical Examiners, Educational Testing Services, Center on Instruction, the National Center on Response to Intervention, the National Center on Learning Disabilities, the National Center on Intensive Intervention, and the National Science Foundation. Additionally, he consulted internationally, working with universities and governmental and professional agencies. In that capacity he has made over 30 invited trips to 11 countries including Jamaica, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Russia, India, Spain, China, and Sweden.
His professional accomplishments have been recognized through receiving awards including the “Career Achievement” and “Outstanding Faculty” awards from the Penn State University College of Education, and the “Leadership” and “Partnership” awards from the KU-CRL. In 2014 he was presented with the Council for Exceptional Children’s Division for Learning Disabilities’ Jeannette Fleischner Award for “Outstanding Contribution to the Field of Learning Disabilities.” Lastly, he was awarded two Fulbright Senior Scholarships to teach and conduct research in Jamaica, South Korea, and Sweden.
Charlie grew up a ‘Navy Brat’ but settled in Northern California in 1955 where he lived until moving to Kentucky – then North Carolina and Florida. He enjoys traveling and golfing and plays guitar in the band, “The Grateful SPLED,” that is made up of Special Education Professors from Penn State. He is very proud of his two children, his daughter who works with adults with disabilities and is a photographer whose works have been exhibited in the Boston area, and his son who has worked as a Campaign Manager in IN, TX, and PA. After a stint as a Corps Member for Teach for America he now works as a researcher for the Democratic Caucus of PA.