Hi, my name is Amy Fuller-Sullivan and I work in the Capital Region in New York State. I am a Teacher for the Visually Impaired. I provided services for school aged students and currently see two braille learners/readers. I also am an independent Early Intervention Provider as well and see these children in the late afternoon hours. I am excited to learn more about braille instruction.
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Hi! My name is Brenda Krueger and I am a TVI/COMS in Central Oregon. I serve a variety of students ages birth to 21 across 7 counties. I am excited to learn some new strategies for reading.
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Hi! I am Maggie and I am a teacher at the Wisconsin School for the Blind and Visually Impaired. I teach daily living skills, ESL, and some elementary education. I am in Wisconsin. I am excited to learn ways I can best help my students across all the content areas I teach.
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Hi! My name is Carla Garbo and I am a TVI in Grant County Indiana. I serve 5 districts and 52 students K-22 years old. My caseload consists of 2 Braille students, many low vision, and several with multiple disabilities. I also serve 2 students who are dual learners Braille/Large print. I am looking forward to the cohort especially for the 2 dual learner students to learn new strategies to increase their reading abilities. So nice to meet everyone!
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Hi! My name is Morgan Foreman and I am a TVI for Naperville Community Unit School District 203 in Naperville, Illinois. I am one of four members of our districtās vision team, two of which are dually-certified as TVI/COMS. I received my Bachelorās Degree from Illinois State University in Special Education: Low Vision & Blindness, first Masterās Degree from University of St. Francis in Reading, Graduate-level certification in Developmental Therapy: Vision (early intervention), and I am finishing up my second Masterās Degree from Missouri State University in Blindness & Low Vision.
My current caseload includes general education elementary students with low vision, middle school students (one general education, one instructional level) with low vision (one of which provision of braille instruction has been recommended), high school students with low vision, a degenerative eye condition, and CVI (two general education, one multi-needs; one general education student knows the braille code and the other general education student is learning the braille code), and a transition-aged student who has CVI and receives homebound services. In addition to working full-time as an itinerant TVI, I also provide vision early intervention services for a few families.
I am excited to learn about all things literacy, especially as it pertains to learners who are blind/visually impaired! I am also excited to gather resources to strengthen my instructional practices.
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Hello!
My name is Angela Dullea and I am a TVI/COMS for a small school district in SE Massachusetts. My current caseload includes twin boys who are contracted braille readers and are learning to read braille fluently. In previous TVI roles, I had an assortment of pre-readers, contracted braille readers, and non-readers. I am interested in learning about the reading process and how it couples with braille instruction ā hoping to learn some new ideas to continue teaching contracted braille!
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Hi my name is Cassandra, I am a TVI and COMS in southern Arizona. I work with students age 3-21, with all levels of vision loss and many with additional disabilities. Iām excited to learn more about the science of reading to add to my tool box when assisting with reading instruction.
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Hi Iām Mary Ellen Flynn and I am currently a TVI in Wisconsin. However, I started my career as an Elementary teacher (2005) and then trained to be a QTVI in the UK in 2014. I moved back to the US in 2022. In my role in the UK I had many more students who were learning Braille; I also lead teaching of reading at a school for students with VI in Birmingham UK. I work in two districts here in WI and serve about 25 students with VIs and some with complex needs. I am really excited to learn about teaching reading to students with VIs. In particular students who have learned print and then need to learn Braille as those have been some of my trickiest students to learn Braille.
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Greetings! My name is Janet Perez. Currently I am unemployed and am not looking for a job. (Still not calling myself āretiredā yet.) For almost twenty years I worked on the Governor Morehead Campus in Raleigh, NC. The campus houses both the Governor Morehead School for the Blind and the NC Division of Services for the Blind. Thus, I have worked with VI students in a K-12 residential environment and in a vocational rehabilitation setting. (My oldest student was 89!)
Over the years I have worked as an Assistive Technology Instructor, a College Prep Teacher, and a Careers Teacher. However, I started my teaching career in a first grade classroom in Charlotte, NC, where reading and writing was woven into everything.
I am looking forward to learning with this cohort and exploring ways to develop/improve literacy skills in VI studentsāwith a special emphasis on promoting and supporting braille skills. (I donāt want to hear another VI student tell me that braille is obsolete! Who is telling these students this?)
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Hello all- my name is Jackie Otwell. I am going to be an itenerant TVI for Carroll County Public Schools. I have 20+ years of experience. I previously worked for Maryland School for the Blind. I know I will have 1 braille reading middle school student on my caseload. Iām looking forward to learning about how vision impacts learning how to read and strategies that I can apply to best support the students and teachers I will work with.
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Hi,
Iām a teacher of the visually impaired/COMS/CATIS working in birth to 3 at Vision Forward in Milwaukee, WI. Iām excited to learn new ways to introduce early literacy concepts to the families that I work with.
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Hello! My name is Shannon Pruitt. I am a TVI in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. I have previously worked, and continue to work, with a variety of students who are learning braille. I am excited to gain knowledge in this course that will help my studentsā IEP teams make informed decisions about where the targeted areas of need are and how I can continue to best support my braille readers as they learn to read.
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Hello! My name is Emily Ramge, and I am a TVI serving multiple counties and school districts in Northwest Ohio. I provide services to children in Early Intervention (birth-3), while my largest caseload numbers are school-aged students with a wide range of abilities and reading levels. I am looking to gather information and ideas that I can utilize and share with the teams and families of the individuals that I serve, in order to provide well rounded reading instruction whether that be print or braille.
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Hi all!
My name is Marissa Chappell. I am a school Speech Language Pathologist working at the American School for the Deaf in Connecticut. Most of my caseload for the upcoming year are highschool students, and students with combined vision and hearing loss (CVHL) and multisensory loss. I am excited to learn more teaching strategies that centralize around literacy that can be combined with my prior knowledge of working with Deaf and Hard of Hearing students, and DeafBlind learners!
Thank you!
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Hello! My name is Kelly Wilson and Iām a Teacher of the Visually Impaired in Phoenix, AZ. I currently work as an itinerant provider within a public school district. This year, I will have multiple students who are braille readers at both emerging braille to fluent, contracted braille readers. Before becoming a TVI, I was a middle school language arts teacher. Iām looking forward to learning some more of the basics of teaching reading!
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Hi Melissa! My name is Marissa Chappell. I am a school SLP working at the American School for the Deaf in Hartford 
Happy to see another learner from CT!
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Hi Jess! My name is Marissa Chappell. I am a school SLP working at the American School for the Deaf in Hartford! So happy to make some connections with other CT professionals.
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Hi @nazaninpoirier Itās great to welcome you to enrolling in your first Hive course!
@ingrid.shoaf Iām THRILLED to reconnect with you here in the cohort!
@kwilson Iām excited to learn from you and see how your language arts teacher background contributes to our discussions in this cohort! Welcome!