As an organization our mission is to serve educators, parents, and children. We work closely with the people who provide professional learning opportunities and/or instructional resources to connect them with the people who need them by offering a platform for sharing and collaboration.
Our Handwriting Collaborative Facebook page will provide a variety of resources and opportunities to participate in virtual vents and workshops.
Kathleen Wright is the Founder and Executive Director of The Handwriting Collaborative. She began her career as an early childhood educator and has been a handwriting instructional specialist and nationally recognized handwriting research advocate for over 30 years. Kathleen has served as subject matter expert on handwriting curriculum development-including the use of teacher-and student-facing classroom technology; and directed the development and implementation of a national handwriting instructor certification course. She has presented on best-practice approaches to classroom handwriting instruction at national and state-level conferences; led virtual and in-person professional development workshops; initiated and organized the 2012 HW21Summit research symposium; and organized and directed the 2022 International Conference on the Science of Written Expression which was held virtually via zoom on January 21st – 23rd, 2022. (https://conference.handwritingcollaborative.org)
Carol Armann, OTR/L is Director of The Handwriting Collaborative's Executive Board. Carol is a pediatric therapist who provides consultative services to local schools. She has over 40 years of pediatric experience with an expertise in sensory processing disorders and best practices in handwriting development. She has presented throughout the USA at state and national occupational therapy conferences including the American Occupational Therapy Association. She has recently co-authored and published a chapter in the Routledge International Handbook of Visual-Motor Skills, Handwriting, and Spelling: Theory, Research, and Practice (©2023).
Ms. Asha Asher, MA, OTR/L, FAOTA, is a Handwriting Instructional Specialist and Executive Board Member. Ms. Asher has provided school-based occupational therapy services for over forty years in four countries (United States, Canada, Belgium, and India), worked as a part-time lecturer, and is currently in private practice in Redlands, California. She has several publications and has presented internationally, nationally and locally on topics pertaining to school-based therapy. Asher serves as a reviewer for two national journals and is on the Roster of evaluators for the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education, and for the Occupational Therapy Fellowship program. In 2010, Ms. Asher was recognized as a Fellow of the American Occupational Therapy Association for her leadership, scholarship, and culturally sensitive practice. She has received two Fulbright grants to promote occupational therapy services in schools in South Asia. As a school occupational therapist my goal is to facilitate the optimal participation of every student in their educational environment.
Dr. Sherry (Crawford) Compston is a Developmental Optometrist and the Handwriting Collaborative's newest Executive Board Member. Sherry is a graduate of The Ohio State University where she received her Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctor of Optometry degrees. She also did an additional two-year Fellowship in Family Practice Optometry where she specialized in Ocular Disease and Pediatrics. After completing her residency at Ohio State, she was invited to join the full-time faculty as a Clinical Assistant Professor and the manager of the Binocular Vision and Pediatrics Clinic. Even after she left this position, she never lost her ties to OSU and continues to be an Associated Faculty Member to this day. In private practice, she continued to specialize in children, particularly those with developmental delays, “lazy eye” or who were struggling in school.
Cheri Dotterer, MS, OTR/L, is a Dysgraphia Specialist and Executive Board Member. Cheri is an international dysgraphia consultant, author, and speaker who trains child development professionals to recognize invisible learning disabilities through professional development opportunities to help students overcome trauma and shame associated with their disability and rewrite their story through grace. She is the author of an Amazon Bestseller, Handwriting Brain-Body DisConnect. She has been an occupational therapist for 25 years and has owned a school-based private practice for 10 years. She has been adjunct faculty of Penn State, Alvernia, and Misericordia Universities and has guest lectured at several other colleges.
Kelli Fetter, MS, OTR/L is a Handwriting Instructional Specialist and Executive Board Member. Kelli is an occupational therapist with extensive experience in pediatrics. She currently provides handwriting tutoring virtually and in-person through her company Handwriting Solutions at www.handwritingsolutions.org. She has practiced in pediatric outpatient settings, early intervention, preschools, private schools, and homeschool co-ops. She has served as adjunct professor teaching pediatrics and kinesiology. Kelli’s handwriting specific training includes a Handwriting Specialist Certification as well Handwriting Without Tears, Size Matters Handwriting Program, and numerous training and workshops on dyslexia and dysgraphia. She has additional skills in pediatric feeding difficulties, primitive reflexes, sensory processing, visual perception, motor deficits, and ergonomics. Kelli also is a parent of a child with dyslexia and dysgraphia and is passionate about serving these children and educating families with evidence-based best practices.
Susan Jahn, MS, OTR/L is a Handwriting Instructional Specialist and Executive Board Member. Susan is a pediatric occupational therapist who has been practicing in the occupational therapy field for over 23 years. She has been a school based occupational therapist for the last 15 years. Susan completed her Level II handwriting certification through Zaner-Bloser, and has spoken nationally on handwriting collaboration and fine motor skills development. Susan has extensive experience in visual motor integration, binocular vision, handwriting, and behavioral feeding.
Lisa Miles, MS, OTR/L is a Handwriting Instructional Specialist and Executive Board Member Lisa is an Occupational Therapist who has worked in the Groveport Madison school district for the past thirteen years. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1987 with a major in Occupational Therapy from The Ohio State University. Lisa earned a Master’s of Science degree in Special Education in 2014 and completed the licensure program in Ohio through the Ohio Department of Education for the position of mild/moderate Intervention Specialist. Lisa has completed training through Handwriting without Tears (K-5 print/cursive) in 2009 as well as completed Level II handwriting certification through Zaner Bloser. Lisa also earned certification to administer the Sensory Integration and Praxis Tests (SIPT) in 1989 and completed training for the Wilbarger Deep Pressure and Proprioceptive Technique in 2009. She completed the Level 1 certification for the Therapeutic Listening program in 2009 as well. Lisa has a passion for working with students with special needs in order to help them overcome barriers and enhance their daily lives.
Izetta N Thomas (she/her) is the Handwriting Collaborative's Early Childhood Intervention Specialist and Executive Board Member Izetta is a Columbus native and graduate of East High School. She received her Bachelors degree in Special Education from The Ohio State University in 2003 and her M.Ed. in Early Childhood Intervention in 2004. Izetta began her career in education as an early intervention specialist in 2004 with the Columbus City Schools special needs preschool program. During her time in Columbus City Schools, she has taught as an early intervention, served as an itinerant teacher for the early childhood division and as a Peer Assistance and Review consulting teacher for first year special education teachers in grades K-12. Since 2019, she has served as the Early Childhood Behavior Specialist Coordinator for Columbus City Schools, supporting pre-k teachers with social emotional development, behavioral strategies and family supports.
Izetta has developed multiple teacher training modules on behavior management, visual strategies, equitable classroom practices, anti-bias and culturally responsive teaching, as well as unbiased gender role practices in early childhood education. She has partnered with The Ohio State University, Kaleidoscope Youth Center, the City of Columbus, The Commission on Black Girls: Black Girls Soar web series and other community partners. A member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc, Izetta has a passion for providing equitable positive education experiences for all children and serving in the community.
Kate Gladstone, M.L.S. is The Handwriting Collaborative's Italic Handwriting Instructor and Advisory Board Member
Kate is a handwriting instruction/remediation/evaluation consultant and founder of HandwritingThatWorks.com, www.pen.guide, and ReadCursiveFast.com — as well as director of the World Handwriting Contest, co-designer of two iOS handwriting training apps, designer of the Stage-Write Raised-Line Handwriting Paper series now produced and distributed by Therapro, creator of the TriOn series of customizable pen-grips (distributed through Therapro and National Autism Resources), creator of a pen designed to teach and motivate a variety of handwriting improvement techniques, and holder of a US Patent for a signature verification system for pen-based computers. She began this career at age 24 during graduate school in a desperate quest to improve her own (then) illegible and otherwise dysfunctional handwriting.
Today, Kate teaches the italic style of handwriting: working nationwide and internationally with school-age students, college students, parents, teachers, physicians, and others who need better simpler, and less accident-prone handwriting. Many of Kate’s students, of every age, also come to her for the techniques that they need for making sense of cursive handwriting when they see it. Kate is a frequent contributor to WRITING MATTERS (the quarterly journal of the Society for Italic Handwriting) and other publications concerned with handwriting skills.
Your contribution will have a direct impact in helping The Handwriting Collaborative to continue our ongoing research in, and support of, the handwriting instructional needs of the educational community.