If you believe ALL children in Ohio deserve to get off to the best start in learning and in life, you’ve come to the right place. Join us.
By incorporating books into primary care, Reach Out and Read strengthens parent-child relationships essential for healthy early relationships. Encouraging parents to read aloud together enhances bonding, boosts children's language scores, and improves parental behavior across diverse families.
Ohio’s state, regional, and local leaders are united in the belief that greater efforts are required to guarantee access to high-quality language and literacy instruction, as well as proper interventions, for all learners from infancy. Data compiled by Groundwork Ohio highlights concerning trends in the state, including:
Reach Out and Read is uniquely positioned to address these challenges faced by children and families in Ohio. We’re scaling our evidence-based impact to reach ALL children in Ohio, particularly in under-resourced communities, as a tool to combat inequity, address social drivers of health, and alter the trajectories of children’s lives.
Our evidence-based model and two-generational approach is connected to:
Backed by peer-reviewed research, Reach Out and Read promotes positive interactions that foster healthy child development during the critical early years.
“Introducing books in our well-child checkups has proven to be invaluable. The book serves not only as a tool for promoting literacy, but also as a gateway to conversations about the importance of reading in early childhood development. It also leads to discussing developmental milestones and the vital role that parental engagement through reading plays in nurturing a child’s well-being.”
National Senior Director of Growth
Ruth Coleman, Reach Out and Read’s new National Senior Director of Growth, immigrated from Nigeria, West Africa, to the United States at age 9, igniting an unwavering commitment to marginalized communities. With more than two decades in nonprofit work and 13 years as an organizational consultant, she optimizes organizational performance through tailored growth strategies, emphasizing collaboration, communication, and leadership, always underscored by a commitment to equity and inclusion. Ruth holds a Ph.D. in Organizational Leadership, an M.A. in Organizational Leadership, a Bachelor of Social Work, and a B.S. in Bible.
She co-founded a nonprofit dedicated to addressing the surgical crisis in Africa, demonstrating her dedication to making a meaningful impact on a global scale. Her diverse experiences and expertise have positioned her to work at the intersection of education and health care, creating opportunities to accelerate the progress of marginalized communities. In her free time, Ruth cherishes time with her husband and two daughters, whom she is raising to change the world; reading a good book; and songwriting.
Reach Out and Read Greater Cleveland
Lynn Hobson Foran served as Executive Director of Reach Out and Read Greater Cleveland (RORGC) since 2019 after previously serving as RORGC Regional Coordinator for three years. Lynn leveraged her leadership, organization, and communication background to help the RORGC grow and thrive. Her efforts helped RORGC establish 46 program sites at hospitals, clinics and doctors’ offices across Greater Cleveland where literacy promotion is incorporated into 35,000 well child visits each year.
Prior to joining RORGC, Lynn took her business skills to the West Shore Career Technical District at Lakewood High School where she guided students in workforce skills and job readiness preparing students for their future careers. Earlier in her career, Lynn served in a variety of systems and operations roles at Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati and San Francisco. Lynn has been an active volunteer by previously serving as President of the Lakewood Public Library Foundation, President of the Lakewood Junior Women’s Club, and as Community Advisor to Help to Others (H2O), a middle and high school program to introduce students to community volunteer activities. Lynn has a Management Information Systems degree from James Madison University.
When not inspiring others to read, she can often be found lost in a book of her own or traveling throughout the country with her husband to spend time with their four children and three grandchildren.
National Senior Director of Growth
Reach Out and Read Greater Cleveland
Program Director
Lori joined Reach Out and Read in 2000 in Northwest Ohio expanding regional presence from one to twenty-five locations. She provides program support to existing and potential Ohio sites/staff and advocates for Reach Out and Read throughout the state.
Lori has worked in health-based parenting/early childhood programming for 35 years including serving children and families as a pediatric in-patient child life therapist, NICU service coordinator, perinatal coach and teen parenting and home visiting educator. Partnering and Parent Education are her two favorite “P’s” and she believes that in addition to focusing on early childhood development we need to focus on early childhood parenting and engagement to make an impact. A former Michigander, she graduated from Central Michigan University with a dual degree in child development and child psychology.
Off the clock, you’ll find Lori outside! Lori enjoys outdoor fitness, flower and vegetable gardening, and serving on the board of a local non-profit art and nature education center. When traveling she makes a point to check out local libraries, parks and specialty grocery stores. Lori is married with three adult children and two grand pups.
Strategic Consultant
Dr. Rebekah Dorman is a Developmental Psychologist who has been working on behalf of children and families for the past forty years. Her positions have spanned the academic, nonprofit, philanthropic and government sectors and always included a special focus on families at risk. She is a Cum Laude graduate of Brandeis University and received her doctorate from Cornell.
During her seventeen-year tenure at Applewood Centers in Cleveland, she served as Vice President and led the Division of Family and Child Development which included home visiting, childcare, early childhood mental, foster care and adoption. In 2003 she was awarded the Building Bridges Award by the Help Me Grow Collaborative.
As Senior Program Director at United Way of Greater Cleveland, she oversaw United Way’s multimillion dollar investment in programs serving children and families and was selected as an “emerging woman leader” in the national United Way system in 2005.
From 2009 until June 2022, she was the Director of the Cuyahoga County Office of Early Childhood and Invest in Children, a nationally recognized public/private partnership. In this role she oversaw the county early childhood system and led the community’s efforts in programming, advocacy and public awareness focused on young children and their families.
At the statewide level, she served by Gubernatorial appointment on Ohio’s Early Childhood Advisory Council for 13 years and is a Board Member of Groundwork Ohio, an organization which advances research-proven policies that result in public investment in Ohio’s children ages 0-5.
Dr. Dorman has been an adjunct faculty member in the Psychology Department at Cleveland State University and is the author of two books: Preventing Burnout in Your Staff and Yourself: A Survival Guide for Human Services Supervisors and Planning, Funding, and Implementing A Child Abuse Prevention Project.
Upon her retirement from government in 2022, Dr. Dorman formed her own consulting practice, Kadima Consulting LLC. She has been the Ohio Strategic Consultant for Reach Out and Read since September 2023.
Program Director
Strategic Consultant