Janet Sturm is a professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Central Michigan University. Dr. Sturm has been working in general and special education classrooms for over 30 years. Her research and development work focuses on writing instruction for students with disabilities, computer-supported literacy, formative and summative assessments of beginning writers, and classroom communication. She has numerous peer-reviewed publications in speech and language and literacy journals. Sturm has served as the principal investigator for two National Institute of Health, Small Business Technology Transfer Research Grants titled FirstAuthor: A Writing Process Software Tool. The objective of the grant projects was to produce an innovative integrated writing software tool that supports beginning writers across the writing process and is accessible to students with severe speech and physical impairments. The First Author Writing Software was published by Don Johnston Incorporated in the spring of 2013. Sturm also developed the First Author Writing Curriculum for students with significant disabilities that draws upon a writing process approach and integrates cognitive strategy instruction and social interaction training. She also served on the Council for Exceptional Children Speech and Language Learning Disabilities Committee, Division for Communicative Disabilities and Deafness from 2002 to 2020.