We, at the Orton Gillingham Online Academy (OGOA), believe that all people have the right to reach their full potential. The OGOA exists to serve children, adolescents, and adults with Dyslexia. We offer parents and teachers resources to assist with teaching our English language. We are dedicated and committed to present to you tools that will enhance the teaching/learning venue. It is our goal to maintain a standard of excellence for the practice of the Orton Gillingham Approach. We make it our mission to reach students across the globe.
Our Orton Gillingham trainers have years of successful teaching experience and offer training opportunities based on Orton Gillingham principles.
Our distinguished staff is dedicated to providing an ongoing resource to those who teach individuals with Dyslexia.
Distinguished Staff
Marisa Bernard, Orton Gillingham Online Academy Executive Director
Marisa is a dynamic educator with several years of successful teaching experience. She has been married for 38 years and has raised her 2 adult children. She has her Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology with a focus in Cognition & Learning and has her Master’s Degree in Special Education. She is also a highly qualified Elementary Education Teacher. Marisa is a Reading Specialist and has worked on staff at the Dyslexia Institute of Indiana as both an educator and trainer of the Orton Gillingham Approach. She has also taught Special Education in a public school setting. Marisa also completed her Educational Leadership coursework at Ball State University and serves the OGOA as Executive Director. She has 25 years of teaching/OG experience and has remediated countless numbers of students on grade level by using research based strategies such as the Orton Gillingham Approach. Marisa is a professional member of the International Dyslexia Association.
Marisa received a grant through the Lilly Foundation & traveled to the highlands of Ecuador to teach English, using the Orton Gillingham Approach, to the indigenous children. She also learned organic farming from her host family & brought this knowledge back to her home school to begin a school wide organic garden for the special needs students to cultivate & maintain.
Marisa also travelled to New York City the summer of 2009 to volunteer at New Life Fellowship Church in Queens. While there, she assisted with their summer children’s educational program & food drive.
Marisa & her husband have welcomed many homeless & downtrodden adolescents into their home. Marisa makes it her mission to assist children who do not fit inside the conventional box and to send them on their way feeling productive, successful, & well-equipped to lead a fruitful life. Marisa looks forward to serving this Academy as director, trainer, and webinar hostess.
Brittany Monro-Lang, Orton Gillingham Online Academy Chief Operating Officer
Brittany has been an OGOA certified Orton-Gillingham tutor and trainer for over 10 years. She has a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a focus in cognition and learning, and a master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling with a focus in childhood disorders. She works with children who have Dyslexia and other cognitive disabilities. It is her passion to assist children with Dyslexia in finding optimal success.
Brittany has provided tutoring services for low-income families, has co-facilitated numerous onsite Orton Gillingham trainings, and has volunteered to work with the homeless youth in Nevada. Currently, Brittany serves the Orton Gillingham Online Academy as chief operating officer, school district group coordinator, product line developer, and practicum extension supervisor.
Mary Binnion, Mentor
Mary is an outstanding educator with her graduate degree and many years of successful teaching experience. While teaching for many years in a large urban system, she realized that she had not been properly trained to teach reading to anyone, especially children with reading difficulties. Although Mary had earned an elementary and a secondary life teaching license, troubled readers were not learning to read in her classroom. Taking additional classes in special education did not remedy the situation. Given the opportunity to learn the Orton-Gillingham Approach changed everything for her, but, more importantly, for her students. She came back to the classroom and revamped her reading class. She asked for and was granted the lowest performing readers from the third, fourth and fifth grades. Student test scores soared. Those children learned to read. Mary is certified through the International Dyslexia Association and was given the International Dyslexia Association (IDA) Indiana Branch Teacher of the Year award in 2000. She is the co-founder of Decoding Dyslexia-IN. A former classroom teacher and administrator for 35 + years in the Indianapolis Public School system, Mary often shares that she didn’t really know how to teach reading until her 28th year in the classroom when she begin her Orton-Gillingham training. She has been a trainer for the Dyslexia Institute of Indiana and currently serves as President of the Indiana Branch of the International Dyslexia Association. Mary somehow finds time to be a special education advocate, where she helps parents work with schools to meet the needs of their child, many of whom are SLD (dyslexic) students.
Angela Warren, Administrative Assistant, Product Developer, Practicum Supervisor
Angela is a wife and mother of three children. She has worked in Early Childhood Education for over 18 years. She founded and directed an Early Childhood Education program at her church in 2009. This program received the highest ratings in Kindergarten Readiness scores for the duration of the program. When it became evident that two of her children were struggling in school, Angela knew that she needed to be able to help her own children with their education. It took over two years to be able to understand why her children were not learning at the same rate as their peers. After extensive neurological testing, her two children were diagnosed with Dyslexia. The severity of the Dyslexia ranges from mild to severe. The Orton Gillingham Approach was the recommended method by the neuropsychologist. To her dismay, there were no certified Orton Gillingham practitioners in her area. She wanted to get her children the help they needed and found the Orton Gillingham Online Academy.
The Orton Gillingham Online Academy has been a huge blessing to her family. After completing the Basic Language Course, Angela went on to obtain her certification through the Academy’s Practicum Extension Course. She is currently an OGOA Certified Orton Gillingham Practitioner, and has since completed her Orton Gillingham Advanced Language training. Angela has also completed a year-long apprenticeship at the Orton Gillingham Online Academy for the Practicum Extension Course, and is now a Practicum Supervisor. It was through the easy accessibility of having an online academy like this one that has led her to not only remediate her own two children with Dyslexia, but also other children in her area who struggle with learning differences.
Sheri Edwards, Office Administrator, Course Co-Facilitator, Practicum Supervisor
Sheri was a registered nurse for many years before becoming a stay-at-home mom when her daughter was born. She has first hand experience dealing with (and homeschooling) a dyslexic child. She became involved with the Orton- Gillingham Approach when her daughter was diagnosed with dyslexia in 2013 and tutoring was recommended. She was fascinated with this method of teaching after observing her daughter’s successes during tutoring sessions. She is excited to be part of the OGOA team and is determined that all educators should know and use this method to teach children language and reading skills.
Christine Magurno, Administrative Assistant, Practicum Supervisor
Christine is a devoted educator with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University at Albany and a Master of Science in Counselor Education from SUNY Oneonta. She served as a K-12 counselor in Connecticut Public Schools for several years before staying home to raise her children.
Two of Christine’s three children have dyslexia, and one was not identified until later in his schooling. Without appropriate help available to her older son, Christine researched options and learned about the Orton Gillingham Online Academy. While working as the Director of Education at Questers’ Way, training and supporting educators teaching a wide variety of subject matters to children and adults, Christine began taking courses with OGOA.
The Orton Gillingham Online Academy has afforded Christine with the skills and knowledge she needs to understand, support, and teach her dyslexic children. In addition to helping her own children, Christine enrolled in the OGOA Practicum with a goal of reaching as many people as possible with the Orton Gillingham Approach. Now an OGOA Certified Orton Gillingham Practitioner, Christine is also the founder of Lemons to Lemonade Literacy, an online and in-person tutoring service. Christine is honored to be a part of the OGOA team, and she currently serves as a Practicum Supervisor.
April Dodge, Practicum Supervisor
April Dodge is a Reading Specialist and an OGOA certified Orton Gillingham tutor. April remains dedicated to helping other educators, young learners, and their families to pursue big dreams. As a mother, her number one aspiration is teaching her own young daughters to be happy and joyous in their own skin. After teaching in Missouri and Florida in larger public districts and in the smaller private setting, April realizes the vast need for all educators to understand teaching children with neurodiverse learning profiles. She sees the need to recognize Dyslexia globally so we can work together to implement researched-based instruction for children, like the Orton Gillingham Approach.
April is proud to support practitioners that want to learn the Orton Gillingham Approach. She knows how many lives can be changed if ‘just one more’ practitioner understands children with Dyslexia. April has been teaching for 18 years and earned two graduate degrees, a master’s degree in elementary education with literacy emphasis and an Educational Specialist degree in leadership. Although well respected in her roles as classroom teacher and literary coach, April didn’t realize that she was unequipped to teach reading until becoming an OGOA certified practitioner in the Orton Gillingham Approach. She’s proud and passionate to now hold all the necessary tools.
When April is not tutoring privately or working as a daytime Reading Specialist, she is found making jewelry, offering family photography, and spending time exploring with her daughters. Serving students with language-based learning difficulties has become another passion. April believes that she is an exceptional educator because she serves exceptional children with Dyslexia.
JT Wanner, Graphic Artist
JT serves as the graphic designer for our product line as well as our marketing materials ([email protected]). We are thrilled to have him as a part of our team!
Our Orton Gillingham trainers facilitate our courses and we welcome you to visit our Virtual Classroom!