About Us

Founder/Director

Catherine Wyrick M.S. is an Accredited Training Fellow of the Orton-Gillingham Academy. Over the past 25+ years she has trained hundreds of teachers and tutors, tutored individual students at all levels and advocated for students with dyslexia in numerous organizations at the state and local levels.  At the state level, she served on the Oregon Dyslexia Advisory Council (2016 -17) helping to implement the new dyslexia law. Locally, she is active with the PPS Dyslexia Advocacy Group and is a long-time member of the Oregon Branch of the International Dyslexia Association.

Previously, Ms. Wyrick partnered with Dorothy Blosser Whitehead M.S. (a Founding Fellow of the OGA) and Sharon Marsh Ed.D. (Fellow of OGA) in presenting Orton-Gillingham courses (2000-2016). She was also a tutor with Language Skills Therapy. In addition, Ms. Wyrick has also served on the Boards of the Oregon Branch of the IDA, Portland Public Schools Special Education Advisory Committee and Gately Academy. Ms. Wyrick was instrumental in stopping Oregon from punishing children for scoring poorly on statewide tests by bringing a successful Federal Class Action lawsuit against the State of Oregon (A.S.K. v. Oregon, 2000).  

Ms. Wyrick is active as a presenter on dyslexia to school and community groups. 

Ms. Wyrick’s first career was journalism.  She was a reporter for The Oregonian, a founder of Willamette Week and a researcher for the Washington Bureau of Newsday.

Administrator

Carolyn Grill earned her Bachelor’s degree in Accounting from the University of Oregon. While raising three children, she spent countless hours volunteering at their schools, both in the classroom and on fundraising.

She strongly believes that literacy is the key to success and has worked for the past five years to help families who struggle with reading