Board of Directors

Dinan Messiqua
President

Dinan Messiqua has worked in the field of language-based learning disabilities for over 15 years.  Currently in private practice, she coaches parents with regards to how to navigate through the special education system and tutors children with language-based learning disabilities, executive functioning struggles, attention disorders, and expressive and receptive language disorders.  She has experience with special education in both public and private schools.  In the Brookline Public Schools, MA, she was a special education teacher working in a district-wide language-based program.  She also coached general education teachers with regards to how to differentiate their teaching to meet the needs of children with language-based learning disabilities.  At the Carroll School in Lincoln, MA, she was a middle school Language Arts teacher and an Orton-Gillingham tutor for 10 years. She has an M.A. in Child Development from Tufts, where she worked with Maryanne Wolf, and an M.Ed. from Lesley University, with a licensure in moderate special needs.  She is eager to support children, parents, and adults through her work with MABIDA.

Nathan Doty
Past President, Northeast Regional Representative on the IDA Branch Council

Nathan Doty is a licensed child psychologist with expertise in the assessment of neurological, developmental, learning, and emotional difficulties from early childhood through young adulthood. His areas of specialty include autism spectrum disorders, ADHD, mood/anxiety disorders, learning disorders, and acquired brain injury. He is the current Northeast Regional Representative on the IDA Branch Council.

Adam Hickey
Vice President

Adam Hickey is the Landmark School research coordinator and a Landmark Outreach consultant. Previously, Adam taught American literature in addition to his administrative role as an academic advisor. Adam is a graduate of the Harvard Graduate School of Education where he studied language and literacy development. While studying at Harvard, he taught at the Maria L. Baldwin School in Cambridge as a reading specialist and explored the influence of early intervention on struggling readers at the elementary level. He also holds a master’s degree in education from Simmons College. Adam is a licensed reading specialist and moderate special needs educator.

Jodi Bertolino
Treasurer

Jodi Bertolino has worked in the LBLD field for the past 20 years. She joined the MABIDA board in 2016. She has a BA from St. Ambrose University and is currently the Controller at Landmark School in Prides Crossing, MA. She brings a financial prospective to board. She has been a board member since 2016.

Charlotte Lunde
Secretary

Charlotte Lunde, M.S. CCC-SLP, has been on the IDA Massachusetts Branch Board of Directors since 2012.  You may have spoken to Charlotte as she has been volunteering her time answering questions about dyslexia from members and the public through the IDA’s phone line.  Additionally, Charlotte is part of the Program Committee and assists in planning all events.  She brings her experiences as a speech-language pathologist and reading specialist. Charlotte works at the school for the deaf in Boston. Also, she has a private practice in the greater Boston area.

Angela Ayre
Member at Large

Angela Ayre is a licensed speech-language pathologist and literacy specialist with over 20 years of experience in a variety of settings, including community-based programs, hospital clinics, and private clinics. Angela has expertise in spoken and written language, bilingualism, and the diagnosis and treatment of developmental language disorders and dyslexia. Currently in private practice, she specializes in engaging school-age children, teens, and adults in building language, literacy, or executive function skills and strategies for increased success at school or work.  She is excited to work with MABIDA to support learners, learners’ families, and education professionals, in finding the information and resources needed for learners to thrive as readers, writers, and communicators.

Joanna Christodoulou
Member at Large

Joanna Christodoulou, EdD, joined the board in 2010. She holds positions as Assistant Professor at the MGH Institute of Health Professions, Research Affiliate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Adjunct Lecturer on Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She received the 2014 Transforming Education Through Neuroscience Award from the Learning & the Brain Foundation and the International Mind, Brain, and Education Society. Her experiences include clinical work, teaching at undergraduate, graduate, and professional development levels, and research using cognitive neuroscience tools.

Melissa Feller
Member at Large

Melissa is a dual-certified Speech-Language Pathologist/Literacy Specialist. She is a Curriculum Specialist at Lexia Learning Systems, an educational technology company that creates personalized learning products to support reading instruction in K-12 classrooms. Prior to her work at Lexia, Melissa was the Director of the Certificate of Advanced Study in Literacy and Language and an Instructor in the Communication Sciences and Disorders Department at the MGH Institute of Health Professions. She has also worked collaboratively with psychologists, special educators, and learning specialists at a private interdisciplinary practice – the Institute for Learning and Development in Lexington, MA.  Melissa has extensive experience providing individualized intervention and consultation services for elementary and adolescent clients with language based learning disabilities and has presented locally and nationally on topics related to intervention and strategy instruction for struggling readers and writers.

Joseph Green
Member at Large

Joseph B. Green, J.D., is an attorney whose practice includes special education law. He also represents students at private schools and colleges in disciplinary proceedings. Mr. Green has served on the Governor’s/MBA Commission on the Unmet Legal Needs of Children, the Governor’s Child Support Commission, the Commission on Violence Against Children.

Patricia Kelley-Nazzaro
Member at Large

Trish Nazzaro has dual teaching certification in Massachusetts as both a Speech Language Pathologist and Reading Specialist, and is member of the faculty at the MGH Institute of Health Professions. She joined the IDA Massachusetts Branch board in 2016. She has extensive experience both hospital and school settings working with clinical populations. 

Nicole McCarthy
Member at Large

Nicole McCarthy has been a board member since 2016.  She is responsible for responding to emails on the MABIDA website.  She currently works as a Researcher for the Boston Search Group Team Ventures, has a Masters of Science in Human Resources from Villanova University and worked for Accenture for 7 years in a variety of cross functional HR roles. She is currently launching the YES! program, a youth dyslexia advocacy group in Massachusetts in coordination with the Learning Ally organization.

Kendra McCuine 
Member at Large

Kendra is a public school special education teacher in a specialized language-based program.  She has worked with dyslexic students for over 15 years and has been a member of the IDA-MA board since 2019.  She brings experience as a public and private school teacher, Orton-Gillingham tutor, specialized writing and math instructor, and private school administrator.  Kendra is passionate about empowering students to understand their learning profiles, mitigating anxiety in students with LBLD, and building executive function through daily instructional practices. Most importantly, Kendra is the proud mother of two students with learning differences— one with dyslexia and one with ADHD.

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Robin Fabiano

Member at Large

Janet Thibeau
Northeast Regional Representative

Janet Barlow Thibeau served as a board member starting in 2014, then served as President of IDA-MA, and is now the IDA Northeast Regional Representative. She is President of BTA Education, an advocacy, college consulting and coaching firm based in West Newbury, MA. She has 15+ years experience working with families of students with all abilities.