2013: Kelly Cartwright

Kelly Cartwright of Yorktown, Va., is the 2013 recipient of the Copper Black Award for Creative Achievement. Awarded annually by the Mensa Education and Research Foundation, the Copper Black highlights exceptional creativity and problem-solving in the field. Kelly received the award for her work developing and implementing an intervention for those with children suffering from Reading Comprehension Deficit.

"My research investigates the intellectual skills necessary for skilled reading comprehension," she said of her work. "I hypothesized that deficits in cognitive flexibility may underlie reading comprehension deficits, thus providing an innovative mechanism of targeted intervention for children who struggle with reading comprehension."

Published in 2010, her assessment of graphophonological-semantic cognitive flexibility and accompanying materials put one more the tool in the hands of educators working to directly impact children who struggle with reading comprehension — something that affects nearly one in three American fourth-graders.

The Copper Black Award was named after the late Ms. Copper Black, a Mensa member who greatly valued creativity. In her will, she left a legacy by funding a special annual award to recognize an outstanding creative achievement by a member of American Mensa.