Governance
Executive
Prior to being the Chair of IDA Ontario, she served as Secretary and has been a longtime volunteer with the charity. Daniella’s journey into literacy advocacy began as a parent seeking knowledge and support for her child with dyslexia. That personal motivation evolved into a sustained commitment to learning and desire to make meaningful change for those with dyslexia and other reading difficulties.
Bringing over a decade of experience in corporate strategy, finance, and organizational leadership, Daniella pairs her professional expertise with lived experience and a passion for educational equity. She is committed to creating lasting change and advancing IDA Ontario’s mission – Until All Can Read.
Like many other dyslexia advocates, Alee’s journey started with a diagnosis of dyslexia for one of her children. Although her kids attended school in Canada, renowned for its robust education system, she was shocked to learn that schools were ill-equipped to teach children with dyslexia. Alee turned to IDA Ontario as one of her resources to do what many parents have done: diving into research and training to ensure her children would learn to read. As a parent, she found it difficult and expensive to find dyslexia resources, such as decodable books, to supplement her children’s education. She uses her networking, communication, and organizational skills to advocate for public access to decodable books and dyslexia resources at libraries and schools. Alee earned a B.A. in International Development Studies from York University and spent a decade as a financial advisor. As part of supporting her dyslexic children, she has taken RX for Reading, Writing, and Math courses with the National Institute for Learning Development (NILD).
Directors
Masouda Eldlio is a nonprofit leader with a strong focus on equity in education and youth empowerment. She leads The Halifax Helpers, a youth-led organization that provides free tutoring to students in Nova Scotia, many of whom face barriers related to income, language, or access to support. Her work includes volunteer management, program development, fundraising, and communications. She helps ensure the organization continues to grow while putting youth leadership at the center and expanding its reach to more students and families.
Masouda also serves as Communications Lead at Climate Resilient Communities, where she supports youth-focused initiatives through storytelling, strategy, and community outreach. She is deeply committed to making education and climate knowledge more accessible to young people, especially those in underserved communities.
Masouda joined IDA Ontario because she cares about making sure students with dyslexia and their caregivers feel supported and understood. She believes in using clear, evidence-based approaches to literacy and wants to help build greater awareness and access to meaningful support from an early age.
Eryn is honoured to join the IDA Board, bringing her expertise in financial oversight to support its mission. With over 25 years of experience in Financial Governance, Controllership, Performance Management, and Audit, she offers deep financial knowledge to drive strong and responsible decision-making. As a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA, CA) and currently the Head of Technology & Operations Finance at the Bank of Montreal, Eryn has built a career centered on financial stewardship and strategic leadership.
Eryn navigated the challenges of finding the right educational support for her son, who was diagnosed with dyslexia in elementary school. Through extensive research, collaboration with tutors, and finding a school that offered more individualized learning, she gained firsthand insight into the importance of accessible education. Her journey fuels her commitment to ensuring that all children receive the support they need to succeed.
Kathryn is an Orton Gillingham-trained classroom educator with a passion for early literacy from the onset of her teaching career. Kathryn is a proud parent of a child with dyslexia, which further fueled her passion for advocacy and equitable reading instruction for all students. As a former program consultant supporting strategic priorities of all students reading by the end of grade 1. Kathryn facilitated and co-constructed the current HWDSB reading strategy rooted in the science of reading. She is a former DIBELS mentor who implemented and trained system-level staff in criterion-referenced screening. Upon returning to the classroom, she used her knowledge of SOR to implement Structured Literacy into FDK. Kathryn is a current Acadience mentor and learning resource teacher in HWDSB.
Shari Kudsia is an elementary school teacher in the Toronto District School Board with over 25 years of experience. She holds official certification from the Academy of Orton-Gillingham Practitioners and Educators (AOGPE) at both the Classroom Educator and Associate levels.
Shari has co-presented at the Literacy and Language Educator Conference for two consecutive years, sharing her expertise in Structured Literacy. She has facilitated Top Ten Tools and The Basics of Decoding and Spelling for the International Dyslexia Association and delivered additional professional development sessions for schools and educator groups.
Over the past eight years, she has embedded Structured Literacy methodologies – grounded in the Science of Reading – into her primary classrooms, seeing significant growth not only in students who struggle, but across the entire spectrum of learners.
Shari is the author of Spell With Confidence, a spelling resource developed from her commitment to making explicit, systematic instruction accessible to all teachers. Motivated by her journey of relearning how to teach spelling through Structured Literacy, she created the resource to fill a gap she had experienced firsthand.
She considers herself a lifelong learner and is deeply committed to advancing educational practices that ensure all children can succeed, with their confidence and self-esteem intact.
Stacey is a school board speech-language pathologist passionate about developmental language disorder (DLD) and dyslexia. She has been registered with the Ontario College of Teachers and the College of Audiologists and Speech-Language Pathologists of Ontario for over 20 years. Many students referred to Stacey for speech-language concerns also experience difficulty acquiring reading and writing skills. Much of Stacey’s work in Ontario schools involves assessing students with language-literacy disabilities and consulting their families and educators.
Andrea Stranges is a K–12 Literacy Consultant with the Niagara Catholic District School Board. She brings a deep understanding of evidence-based instructional and assessment practices grounded in the Science of Reading—a comprehensive body of research spanning multiple disciplines and decades.
Andrea’s commitment to structured literacy began in 2021 when she transitioned from teaching primary to intermediate grades and discovered that eight of her thirty Grade 7 students were struggling readers—students she had previously taught in Grade 1 and believed had been reading successfully. This realization sparked a professional and personal journey to improve literacy outcomes for all learners.
Since then, Andrea has become a certified Acadience® mentor and a strong advocate for universal screening in schools. She is dedicated to supporting systemic change in education to ensure that no student falls through the cracks. As part of a passionate community of educators, Andrea continues to lead and learn in service of building equitable, effective literacy instruction for every child.
Andrea views her work in creating systems change as vocational. Her mission is to work with system and school leaders to create a shared vision that is centered around using direct, explicit, systematic instruction, leading to equitable learning outcomes for all students.
Bio to come
President Emerita
Dr. Una Malcolm is a passionate advocate for evidence-based reading instruction for all children. In addition to volunteering as the President of IDA Ontario, she is the Project Lead for ONlit.org. She believes deeply in the potential of all children, and in the transformative power of effective instruction to allow every child equitable access to all the benefits literacy affords.
Alicia worked hard early in life to hide her dyslexia. Although she quickly took to computers that could disguise her challenges, her secret was discovered in high school after submitting her first essay exam. Fortunately, a caring teacher arranged for her to be tested, and she was allowed to write future exams on a computer, an accommodation that was not common then. Uncertain how she would manage post-secondary without this accommodation, Alicia enrolled at the University of King’s College in Halifax, where first-year students take oral debate-style exams. With written exams on the horizon for the second year, Alicia left university to pursue her passion for cooking. After training at The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, Alicia spent seven years as a chef aboard luxury yachts. In 2004, after settling down with her husband in a small town near Georgian Bay, she returned to school to study web development and computer science. After her first child was identified as dyslexic, Alicia became passionate about supporting him and changing public perception. She knew doing this would require her to do something she had hidden from her entire life. She actively started speaking openly about her own challenges to stand with her son and others facing similar experiences.
Advisory Council
Roby Hochman (Founder)
Roby Hochman was one of the founders of the Ontario Branch of the International Dyslexia Association. She also served as Vice President, Interim President, and Conference Co-chair. Roby graduated from Hofstra University with a degree in Speech-Language Pathology. She worked at The Hospital for Sick Children and in private practice for over 35 years. Her initial interest in reading was piqued when she noticed a relationship between language development and literacy skills. Roby went on to obtain an MEd from York University, focusing her studies on the acquisition of written language skills, struggling readers, and methods of instruction. Following graduation, she attended courses, workshops, and conferences provided by the International Dyslexia Association, becoming a member of the Buffalo branch. Roby’s focus shifted to developing written language skills using evidence-based intervention methods. Interactions with colleagues, parents, and allied professionals led to an awareness that there was a need in the province for an organization to provide information, support, and advocacy for individuals with dyslexia, their families, and educators. With that goal, she connected with other members of the Buffalo branch, and two years later, in 2004, they established IDA Ontario. Roby has also served on the boards of both the Ontario and National Associations of Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists and the Advisory Panel for the National Early Literacy Strategy, a project of the Canadian Language and Literacy Research Network (CLLRNet). She has also served on charity boards. Roby is retired from her professional practice. However, she continues to support IDA Ontario in its mission to create a future for all individuals who struggle with dyslexia and other related reading differences.
Sally Shearman (Founder)
Sally Shearman was one of the founders of the Ontario Branch of the International Dyslexia Association. Sally teaches Special Education and has been with the York Region District School Board since 1991. She was a member of the Advisory Panel for the National Early Literacy Strategy, a project of the Canadian Language and Literacy Research Network (CLLRNet), and the Advisory Panel for the Effective Reading Instruction Resource Kit, CLLRNet. She has served in various positions at the local and national levels within IDA since 1999. Sally has developed and delivered many workshops and teaching modules to raise awareness amongst education professionals of research-based classroom approaches to teaching individuals with dyslexia. Dyslexia runs in Sally’s family, and she is passionate about ensuring all children receive research-informed literacy instruction.
Dr. Michèle Minor-Corriveau
Michèle est orthophoniste depuis 1998 et est professeure agrégée à l’École d’orthophonie de l’Université Laurentienne. Elle a travaillé auprès des enfants d’âge scolaire ayant des difficultés reliées au langage et à la parole. Par sa formation et ses recherches, elle est passionnée du partage des connaissances qui portent sur l’apprentissage de la lecture et de l’orthographe en français, en milieu minoritaire. On peut consulter son site internet pour en apprendre davantage sur ses conférences, ses publications, ses blogues et des ressources.
Jan Maclean
Jan MacLean, B.Sc.(O.T.), M.Sc. founded The Reading Clinic in Kingston, Ontario. Since 2001, the Centre’s YES! Reading, YES! Writing and YES! Math programs have helped hundreds of students achieve success. Jan is a Certified Orton-Gillingham Educator and Practitioner and an IDA Dyslexia Therapist. Jan is also a previous board member of IDA Ontario.
Jill Kearney
Jill Kearney was Vice-President of IDA Ontario from 2016-2022. She wrote IDA Ontario’s submission to the OHRC Right to Read Report and was involved in many IDA Ontario projects including IDA Ontario webinars, workshops, and courses (i.e. Introduction to Structured Literacy Instruction, and the on-demand Basics of Decoding and Spelling Instruction courses) and website development (including the online Professional Directory). She is a certified IDA Dyslexia Practitioner with Associate Level certification from the Academy of Orton-Gillingham Practitioners and Educators. Jill has a B.Sc. (Biology ) and an M.Sc. (Applied Statistics) and worked for over 30 years in environmental health research and risk assessment. She became interested in understanding dyslexia when a family member had unexpected difficulties learning to read. She now enjoys private tutoring and often looks at the latest scientific articles about reading and participating in workshops and webinars on dyslexia, assessment, effective interventions, fluency, morphology, etymology, assistive technologies, and other learning issues. By working with IDA Ontario, she hopes to share what she has learned to help people with dyslexia, their families, and educators.
Joanne Bertrand
Joanne Bertrand is a certified IDA and CERI (Center for Effective Reading Instruction) Structured Literacy Dyslexia Specialist. She is also a certified Wilson Reading System Level 2 Instructor, a program based on the Orton Gillingham approach. Joanne is a member of the Ontario College of Teachers. She began her career as a Child and Youth Worker and then went on to teach and be a school principal for 27 years. She obtained her Specialist Qualifications in Reading, Special Education, and French as a Second Language early in her career. Helping children and adults with dyslexia and their families is a priority for her. This is why she became a volunteer with IDA Ontario, contributing in many areas, most recently as Vice President and Chair of Webinars and Training. Joanne posts French Structured Literacy Resources on OnLit.org for francophone and FSL students. Remaining current with research and information about effective structured literacy instruction and effective interventions helps her ensure that her students achieve their true potential as readers and writers. With IDA Ontario, Joanne hopes to bring structured literacy instruction to all students and educators in Ontario schools.