About Us

About Reading Mountain

Meet the founders

Zahra and Nasir

Zahra

Literacy Expert

Zahra brings a deep foundation in literacy and education.

Background

  • Cornell UniversityUndergraduate degree in English, graduated magna cum laude
  • Teachers College, Columbia UniversityMaster’s in secondary English education
  • Classroom teacherTaught in inner-city middle and high schools
  • Homeschool teacherTaught her own dyslexic children to read
  • HometownBorn and raised in upstate New York, now based in New Jersey

What stayed with her

Teaching in inner-city schools, she saw students reach high school who had never learned to read, simply because they were never taught properly.

Solving that problem became a calling.

She brings both classroom experience and academic expertise in literacy to Reading Mountain.

Nasir

Technology Expert

Nasir brings the technical backbone.

Background

  • Cornell UniversityBachelor’s degree in computer science
  • Rutgers UniversityPhD in mechanical and aerospace engineering
  • Purdue UniversityAssistant professor
  • AmazonWorked on artificial intelligence and software
  • Autonomous vehiclesWorked at leading companies that partnered with Ford, Volkswagen, and Hyundai
  • HometownBorn and raised in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, now living in New Jersey

Why it’s personal

Nasir shows many of the signs of dyslexia himself. He has always found spelling difficult, and he grew up struggling with reading and writing.

Friends in high school would joke that his first language wasn’t English, it was C++.

He understands the challenge Reading Mountain solves from the inside.

He left that career behind to commit himself fully to Reading Mountain.

His expertise in AI now shapes the technology behind it.

Nasir on LinkedIn

Our story

How Reading Mountain started

The idea grew directly out of their experience as parents.

Nasir and Zahra with their family at Jockey's Ridge State Park in North Carolina
Nasir and Zahra with their family at Jockey's Ridge State Park in North Carolina.
  1. 1

    A homeschooling family

    While homeschooling their three children, Nasir and Zahra watched each one struggle with reading.

    All three faced reading challenges related to dyslexia.

  2. 2

    In the classroom, too

    Before homeschooling, Zahra taught in inner-city middle and high schools.

    While teaching there, she saw students reach high school who had never learned to read, simply because they were never taught properly.

  3. 3

    No simple, effective way

    As they searched for help, they discovered there was no simple, effective way to teach reading to those who learn differently.

  4. 4

    A custom approach

    They ended up following a custom approach that combined multiple different curriculums.

  5. 5

    A much bigger need

    In the process, they realized this was a need far bigger than their own home.

    People of all ages, children and adults alike, struggle to read.

  6. 6

    A simpler, proven way

    There needs to be a simpler, proven way to learn.

    Reading Mountain is the result.

What we believe

Why Reading Mountain exists

Nasir and Zahra built Reading Mountain around a clear conviction.

Literacy rates remain low, but not because people can't learn to read.

They remain low because people are not being taught properly. The right instruction simply isn't being provided.

That is the problem Reading Mountain exists to solve.

In short

Reading Mountain exists because Nasir and Zahra believe more people can learn to read when they are given the right instruction:

  • Explicit
  • Structured
  • Designed for students who need a clearer path
See the programHow we use AI