Berkley Singer is an exemplary special education teacher, currently employed in Colorado. Her work with students has been highly impactful. Berkley shares her own story of coping with dyslexia as a student and reflects on the motivation and inspiration offered by her grandmother Dr. Gertrude Webb, a life long leader in the field who changed the way we think of learning disabilities. If you’d like to discover ways to support and become involved with the Webb Innovation Center for Dyslexia, please visit our website at dyslexicswanted.org.
A conversation between Jordan Rich and Matt Bomes, Founder and Chief Innovation officer for Summit Street Medical, empowering food allergy families to live life to the fullest. The company is currently in the midst of unveiling an exciting new delivery system for epinephrine, certain to help millions with food allergies. Matt talks with us about his early struggles with Dyslexia and his determination to overcome learning roadblocks. Through determination and hard work, Matt has flourished personally and professionally and his story will inspire. If you’d like to discover ways to support and become involved with the Webb Innovation Center for Dyslexia, please visit our website at dyslexicswanted.org.
Dean Bragonier is the Founder and ‘Executive Dyslexic’ of NoticeAbility.org. He and his team have pioneered the development of teaching and learning techniques helping dyslexic students succeed in academics and life. Shaped by his own challenges with dyslexia, Dean became a successful college student after struggling through the traditional secondary education system. He soon discovered his true gifts as an entrepreneur opening a very successful restaurant on Martha’s Vineyard. NoticeAbility is the culmination of Dean’s passion for education and his conviction that the advantages of dyslexia far outweigh its associated challenges. If you’d like to discover ways to support and become involved with the Webb Innovation Center for Dyslexia, please visit our website at dyslexicswanted.org.
Taylor Mali has been writing and performing poetry since 2000. His poems have been described as eminently clear, relatable, humorous and touching. He has performed or taught poetry in over 50 foreign countries and throughout the United States. He is a vocal advocate of teachers and the nobility of teaching, having taught in one capacity or another since 1990. In that capacity he worked with students with varying learning disabilities, inspiring them to love learning and creativity. Formerly president of Poetry Slam, Inc., the non-profit organization that oversees all poetry slams in North America, Taylor Mali makes his living entirely as a spoken-word and voiceover artist these days, traveling around the country performing and teaching workshops as well as doing occasional commercial voiceover work. He has written several books and has narrated several books on tape, including The Great Fire (for which he won the Golden Earphones Award for children’s narration). If you’d like to discover ways to support and become involved with the Webb Innovation Center for Dyslexia, please visit our website at dyslexicswanted.org.
Kids With Super Powers – Joey and Rick Nurmi – A conversation between Jordan Rich and Joey and his dad Rick Nurmi. Joey is now attending college having successfully overcome the hurdles of Dyslexia. Hear his perspective on how Dyslexia has benefited him in many creative ways. Also, Joey’s dad Rick will share his story of pride and appreciation for what Joey has accomplished. Together this father and son team exemplifies what dedication, focus, hard work and love is all about. And if you’d like to discover ways to support and become involved with us, please visit our website at dyslexicswanted.org.
A conversation between Jordan Rich and children’s book author Jodi Tattiana-Charles, who talk about how it wasn’t until Jodi was an adult that she learned she is dyslexic and therefore as a child she just thought she wasn’t that smart. Her Haitian immigrant parents placed a huge value on education but they also encouraged Jodi and gave her opportunities to learn in unconventional ways. Watching her parents overcome obstacles and persevere encouraged her to do the same thing. Most recently she wrote a book titled “It’s Just A Rug” where three young friends take a journey to discover, and ultimately celebrate the legacy of their families’ personal histories. In this podcast Jodi talks about how she intuitively compensated for her dyslexia, and continually challenged and developed her strengths. To discover ways to support and become involved with us, please visit dyslexicswanted.org.
Educator and literacy specialist Deb Mallin is the founder and CEO of Literacy Matters. Deb had a thriving private practice helping students, one at a time, learn to read and write. The more success she had helping her students and student families, the more concerned she became about the vast numbers of those she couldn’t help. With the encouragement and support of her husband and three sons, she leveraged the most innovative technology and artificial intelligence (AI) to replicate her processes on a scalable device to now reach entire classrooms of emerging readers. Deb created the Literacy Matters Foundation and is on course to close the widening literacy gap, making possible what others thought to be impossible.
The Literacy Matters Foundation is a growing team of educators, content experts, technology gurus and strategists who have come together to help students master literacy by leveraging technology, refining curriculum, nurturing relationships, and painting a vision of the world when we’re all on the same page. Find out more at www.literacymatters.org. To discover ways to support and become involved with us, please visit dyslexicswanted.org.
Alex Maclean- A conversation between Jordan Rich and pilot and photographer, Alex Maclean, who has flown his plane over much of the United States documenting the landscape. Alex is dyslexic, and in this interview he talks about his early diagnosis in the 1950’s and how his mother, recognizing the disparity between his curiosity and intelligence, and his reading ability, read to him so that he could keep up with his schoolwork; in fact he excelled in school, and graduated from Harvard College. He credits having dyslexia with his ability to think spatially and translate what he sees in his mind’s eye into images taken through his camera lens. Trained as an architect, he has portrayed the history and evolution of the land from vast agricultural patterns to city grids, recording changes brought about by human intervention and natural processes. His powerful and descriptive images provide clues to understanding the relationship between the natural and constructed environments. MacLean’s photographs have been exhibited widely in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia, and are found in private, public and university collections. To see images of and learn more about Alex’s work, go to AlexMaclean.com. To discover ways to support and become involved with us, please visit dyslexicswanted.org.
Carey and Cliff Cort- A conversation between Jordan Rich and Carey and Cliff Cort, inspired and inspiring dyslexics married to each other, and the parents of two daughters one of whom is dyslexic. Cliff and Carey talk about the joys and difficulties they’ve experienced being dyslexic, and how it has challenged and enhanced their work and family life. To discover ways to support and become involved with us, please visit us at dyslexicswanted.org.
Tom West- A conversation between Jordan Rich and Tom West, who is dyslexic and the author of Seeing What Others Cannot See (2017), Thinking Like Einstein (2004), and In the Mind’s Eye, which has been translated into Japanese, Chinese and Korean (1991 and 1997). In addition to being an author, Tom has worked with engineering and consulting firms where he co-managed a large international renewable energy research, design and training program in Egypt for USAID, participated in and led trade missions to Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia, via Hong Kong and Singapore, helped to redesign a nationwide computer information management system (SSI) and integrated strategic planning for several federal government agencies. To learn more about Tom go to dyslexicswanted.org.