Meet Us
Orton Gillingham Reading Specialists does two things:
- We teach struggling readers how to read using the Orton Gillingam approach.
- We teach educators how to become Orton Gillingham Reading Specialists.
Orton Gillingham Reading Specialists was established in 2003 by Karen Sonday, M. Ed. and Fellow of the Academy of Orton Gillingham Practitioners and Educators. With her mother, Arlene Sonday, Karen is a co-author of The Sonday System Essentials OG-based curriculum. Karen has been an OG practitioner since 1983 and is a speaker and teacher trainer nationally and internationally.
Karen personally supervises each educator and their training so that consistency and fidelity are maintained among the entire teaching staff, producing an extremely effective program for both teachers and students.
As teaching professionals, we're constantly honing our skills, improving our techniques and learning - ongoing professional development is mandatory for our educators. As a team, we are sharing students, ideas, strategies, best practices, and insights. Involving more than one staff member with each student allows us to bring multiple perspectives and ranges of experience to each one. As a center, we strive to stay up-to-date on new research and incorporate it into our teaching. In order to promote consistency and cohesiveness, it's important that we see ourselves as part of a larger entity rather than individual units.
As people, we are truly invested in the success of each individual student - child or adult.
![]() Karen Sonday Owner/Executive Director | ![]() Tracie Ditty Team Lead and Master Reading Specialist | ![]() Katherine Englund Team Lead and Master Reading Specialist | ![]() Maggie Klimisch Master Reading Specialist |
![]() Nancy Nakaoka Staff Reading Specialist. | Jenny Nelson | ![]() Terri Nelson Staff Reading Specialist. | Abbe Pedersen |
![]() Rhonda Rademacher Staff Reading Specialist . . | ![]() Tegwin Rome Staff Reading Specialist . . | ![]() Brenda Zehnder Director of Finance and Operations, Master Reading Specialist |