Ready, Set, Read! Staff

Merrily Weiss — Executive Director and Parent Educator
Merrily founded Ready, Set, Read! in 1999 to address the need for literacy training and resources for families with children enrolled in Los Angeles area preschools. Over the years, Merrily has taught read-aloud techniques to over 5,000 parents at workshops throughout Los Angeles county.

Elaine Sowell — Parent Educator
Los Angeles native Elaine Sowell was a bilingual teacher for LAUSD for 33 years, teaching School Readiness Language Development and Kindergarten in South Central Los Angeles schools. In 2008, she came out of retirement to use her experience as a teacher, mother and grandmother to make her Read-Aloud workshops informative for parents and teachers.