Hello!
My name is Dana Brosso and I live in northern Illinois. I am in my 13th year as a TSVI and am also a CATIS.
I work for a large cooperative and serve 12 districts as a TSVI and CATIS.
Most of my current teaching caseload is low vision and students with multiple and complex needs, including CVI. I have two students learning braille but I support many teachers as a CATIS who have students using refreshable braille, tactile graphics, etc.
I am looking forward to learning everything about the Monarch and how it will change access for our students!!!
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My name is Stacie Koprowski. I am a TVI. I currently work for Lancaster-Lebanon IU13 in Pennsylvania. I provide vision related services to school age students in several different school districts in Lancaster county. I currently have 4 braille students. Two high students and 2 elementary students.
I am most excited about graphics and refreshable braille being displayed at the same time. I also love that the Monarch provides access to a tactile graphics library that allows the graphic to be downloaded instantly. I am excited to attend the training in March in Maryland.
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Hello All! I am Lori Cole from the Arkansas School for the Blind in Little Rock, Arkansas. I am the teacher supervisor for the Braille and assistive technology department here at the school. I am a TVI and interested in obtaining my CATIS. I serve direct and indirectly students prek-12th. I really enjoyed the first part of the trial with the Monarch, and look forward to learning more.
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My name is Amy Neils. I am a Teacher of the Blind/Visually Impaired in southern Minnesota. I work with babies and students, ages 0-22, in homes, preschools, and elementary through high schools. I am most excited to learn everything that the Monarch can do for my students who are blind. Also, how it can be beneficial for low vision students. I hope that it produces excellent graphics and can be used for multi-line math problems. I canāt wrap my brain around how it works, so Iām excited to get trained instead of learning it all by trial and error.
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Hello,
My name is Jessie Grober and I am in Wisconsin. I work for the Wisconsin Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired as an education consultant and short course instructor. My focus in my education consultant role is braille, the ECC, and working with our state assessments on sensitivity and bias. I work with TVIs from all over the state answering questions and doing research as well as teaching students in short courses. I am excited to learn all things Monarch and I am really excited for the future to see if state assessments can one day be given on the Monarch!
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My name is Trevor Stout and I am a TBVI teaching out of the NOVA area of Virginia. I began this journey working as an instructional assistant at a public school in my district with a program meant to support students who are blind/visually impaired. This school had a population of 6 blind students along with 3 other low vision students receiving support and services. I became greatly interested in the braille code, and despite my initial plans to become an English teacher, I switched course and Iām very happy in my current placement! Iām on my second year, so Iām still very fresh in the field.
Along with the braille code, I was also fascinated by braille technology at firstāeven just a simple refreshable braille display. I grew familiar with technology like the BrailleNote Touch Plus and other devices which served the unique needs of individual students in my first building. I currently have only one braille student, with my remaining students spread across other buildings. After watching the video on the Monarch, Iām excited to interact with the device in person!
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My name is Karen Anderson, and I serve as the Education Programs Coordinator for the National federation of the Blind. This means that I get to do all the fun things, from helping coordinate programs to teach little kids Braille, to working with their parents to raise expectations for what blind kids can do, to getting to know teachers of blind students and helping them connect with blind adults.
The National Federation of the Blind has partnered with APH and HumanWare on the Monarch, and it has been a thrill to see how far the device has come! I am really looking forward to meeting so many of you at the upcoming trainings and getting to work with you to learn how to use this new technolgy, since Iām sure you all will come up with use cases that we never even dreamed of. 
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Hi, Emily! Nice to see another Buckeye here!
Iām Shelley Mack from the Cleveland OH area. Iām a TVI, certified braille transcriber, and braille consultant for our state AT&AEM Center. I currently have students from age 3 to 19 with a real mix of abilities, vision, and interests. I look forward to becoming more efficient and effective with the Monarch and watching it grow, improve, and morph into a game changing tool for students.
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Hi Daniel,
I too am from New York. Will you be in FL. I am a musician who uses braille music. Iād love to connect.
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Hi,
I am Lis Geoghegan, a TVI at the New York Institute for Special Education in the Bronx. I have one section of high school ELA, and spend the rest of my day teaching assistive technology to students Ranging from second grade to 12th grade. I have 30 years of teaching experience, a few years of which were regular ed, several years with adult rehabilitation clients, and most of my career working in K-12 as a TVI and content specialist. Being able to produce tactile graphics quickly with ease is A huge draw to this product. Looking forward to learn all I can about the Monarch at the Florida training.
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Nice to meet you, Amy.
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Great to meet you Diana. I am excited about the Monarch, too.
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hello, Emily.
We ar neighbors. I am in Lexington KY. I think it will be great to have someone close. Who knows, we may even be able to collaborate on something. What training will you be attending?
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Dear Lis,
Thank you for reaching out to me. Iāll actually be at the training in Baltimore early in March. Was wondering if you picked that as one of your choices since itās closer to New York.
In any case Iām getting increasingly excited about this opportunity to be an active part of this āBraille Metamorphosisā. I know the quest for a user-friendly multi-line braille and/or tactile graphic display has been long and full of multiple research teams and companies. Iām actually fortunate enough to have a Canute 360 from Bristol Braille, but it seems like a rather old-world design for a new-world product (no battery/has to be plugged in, slow/noisy refreshing, etc). I was able to use it for a few of my more extensive music proofreading jobs, but itās a read-only unit. Itāll be great to be able to work with all sorts of tactile graphics and tables or matrices, let alone perform basic editing on multiple lines and a braille keyboard all in one device.
If you have any advice for me going into the March Monarch training, that would be great. I hope your experience at the first session this month goes well, and that you enjoy learning (and teaching others to use) this highly innovative product.
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Hello, It is great to meet all of you. My name is Amanda Lannan. Currently I am a professor in the graduate teacher preparation Visual Impairment program at the university of Kentucky in Lexington. Originally, I am from Orlando where I served in a range of teaching roles. I have primarily worked as a special education teacher, but have also taught general education 1st, 4th, and 5th grades. In addition, I worked as a TVI for Orange County Public schools, and lead the Lighthouse after-school and summer programs for elementary age VI students. When Iām not teaching, I enjoy lazy days on our boat, or snow skiing in the winter. I am competitive at board games, and typically reading more than one book.
I am excited about the Monarch and the opportunities for increasing equitable access to high levels of STEM instruction for blind and visually impaired students. I am also interested in how teachers who are blind might use generative AI to create educational materials, particularly tactile graphics. I will be at the Orlando training. Who are the other Orlando trainees in the group?
Looking forward to the āfirst flightā!
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Hi, my name is Krystal Guillory. I teach blind and VI students in Lincoln Parish Schools (Ruston, Louisiana). I am the only teacher in my district, so I cover ages 3-22 (or Prek3 through 12th grade) in various educational settings. I also serve babies, ages 0-3, within our local area. Additionally, I coordinate summer braille programs for our state, so I have a plethora of students and abilities. I have been in the field 20 years and have also taught at the state school for the blind, as well as through contractual services.
I am very excited for many facets of the Monarch, but I am most excited about the graphics ability of the device. It takes a lot of time to make graphics accessible for my students and often they go without graphics and just get descriptions in a pinch. But, the ability to access the TGIL and explore graphics on the fly will be phenomenal.
I am also very excited for new braille file formats and the ability to have textbooks with images imbedded. The other capabilities that would be awesome are editable math files, calculator, and graphing calculator.
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I forgot to mention that I will be in the April training in Los Angeles, California.
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MD was my second choice. I chose FL because I was going to be a ATIA anyway. Iāll reach out to you off the discussion board. Interested in sharing some brain cells with you on braille music composition.
Lis Geoghegan, TVI, VRT
New York Institute for Special Education
ELA Teacher and Assistive Tech Specialist
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Hello! I am Tabitha Wyatt and I am a Braillist with the Greeley/Evans School District 6 in Colorado. I work primarily with two high schoolers and a little with a middle schooler. Our students all currently use the APH Mantis mostly just connected to their computers with screen reading software. I am excited to see how the Monarch can tackle diagrams in science and geometry. I hate that have to emboss out at least 20 pages per week just for the geometry so am excited to see how the Monarch can be used with our students.
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