Meet the Teacher

Neurodivergent Specialist, Teacher Trainer, Author

Nancy is an award-winning author who graduated from Vanderbilt University with degrees in Elementary Education and Special Education. She is trained in Orton-Gillingham Plus and received her Educational Therapy license from the National Institute of Learning Development to help her bright and creative son who struggled with dyslexia.

Nancy also has over thirty years of teaching experience. She has had the privilege of teaching in public, private, homeschool, and Montessori settings — and even in a thatch-roofed classroom in Belize. In her first book, Woven: A Peace Corps Adventure filled with Faith, Laughter, and Love, she shares her light-hearted escapades from the K’ekchi Mayan village where she lived.

Currently, Nancy serves as the Neurodivergent Specialist at Fusion Academy where she delights in teaching and learning from students with all types of beautiful brain-wiring including dyslexia, ADHD, autism, NVLD, and anxiety. Nancy has a passion for creating and implementing professional development workshops to help teachers understand, embrace, and celebrate student neurodivergence in their classrooms. She has witnessed, firsthand, the majesty and beauty of all types of brains and has observed what Sally Shaywitz, leading neurologist and dyslexia pioneer, has uncovered in her research: “You can teach a person to read … but if they’ve had that hurt and that pain and that blow to their self-esteem, that’s the most difficult. We have no medicine for that.”

Inspired by the autobiographical stories written by her middle and high school students who have “survived” the misunderstandings, shame, and blame often associated with dyslexia, Nancy has written a book that she hopes will serve as a bit of “medicine.” By speaking their stories and listening to others, Wright, Kenyon, Katharine, Josh, Garrison, and Nora have found an antidote for shame: they have become powerful advocates for dyslexia even while they are still facing the hardships of dyslexia in school themselves.