Mary Kohnle inspires young people with learning differences to explore and develop their talents and strengths. Students with learning differences are brilliant and often need guidance to discover their strongest assets. Parents typically see the brilliance in their children that others may miss, so she has a passion for mentoring parents. She provides tools to help families support their children academically and emotionally. She believes all students with learning differences can learn to learn when given encouragement, compassion, and research-based intervention.
Already an educator, Kohnle made a career change upon receiving her son’s diagnosis of dyslexia and four more learning differences. She has been on staff at Fairhill School for 10 years as licensed dyslexia therapist, CALT, and elementary teacher. She leads an LD Parent Support Group, has given professional development presentations, and does educational outreach for the school. She has been a teacher in public school in Santa Rosa County in Florida, in LD schools in Texas, and in Christian schools as well.
Her previous board of director experience includes serving on the Dallas branch of the International Dyslexia Association and with the Northwest Florida chapter of the National Association for the Education of Young Children.
Having numerous interests, she has taken graduate classes from three universities in several programs. She has a BA in Elementary and Early Childhood Education from the University of West Florida. Kohnle received her dyslexia intervention training from the Southwest Multisensory Teacher Training Center.
She lives with her husband, son, and two adorable dogs in McKinney, Texas. She enjoys exploring new art mediums and taking art classes as often as possible. Her son, mentioned above, has a strong work ethic and is pursuing a master’s degree at Texas A & M University.