Our team

 My name is Ann Gradman and I am very excited to be a part of The Academy Virtual and the Founding Executive Director of The Academy NJ. I am eager to have the opportunity to work with our amazing students who struggle with dyslexia.

I have been teaching for almost 20 years.  After graduating from Colgate University, I moved to California and taught in a progressive, child-centered school with exceptional students.  I loved it and knew that I had found my path.  Soon after, I moved to Brooklyn and completed my Master’s Degree in Reading and Learning Disabilities at NYU.

Since then, I have worked in several different schools in New York and New Jersey teaching Special Education and Literacy to students in grades K-8.

  Hello! I'm Heather Badger-Brown. I live in lovely Upstate New York where I like to cook, geocache, sing and play video games in my spare time. 

I've been teaching for more than 25 years and it's my passion.  

I am a Wilson Dyslexia Practitioner and have New York State teaching certifications in Reading, Special Education and Elementary Education. I  believe all children deserve a chance to learn in an engaging and encouraging environment which is why I love teaching for The Academy Virtual.

My name is Mahogany Murphy and I am thrilled to be a part of The Academy Virtual. I am excited to have the opportunity to work with students who face different challenges and watch them use the strategies we teach to overcome them. Their resilience encourages me everyday.

I have been teaching for over thirteen years and love it more now than when I began. I have a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Loyola Marymount University. My teaching certificate is in Elementary Education.

   Hi! I am Katherine (Katie) Vetere born and raised in Brooklyn, New York turned Jersey
girl. I live with my husband, and 2 children. I am a daughter, sister, wife, mother, aunt,
friend, and educator. Both of my parents were educators and it has been my passion,
since childhood, to be a next generation leader. 

I graduated from Monmouth University in 2009 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Elementary Education and Anthropology. I continued my education and completed my
Masters Degree in Teaching Students with Disabilities at Pace University. I then went on to achieve an advanced certificate in Teaching Gifted and Talented Students at Hunter College. I didn't stop there. While teaching at my last district, I completed my
Wilson Reading Program Level 1 Certification.

    Hi! My name is Marnie Witters and I have a BA in English from the University of Georgia. Go Dawgs! I also hold an MS degree in Technical and Professional Communications from Southern Polytechnic State University.

My background includes about 20 years of experience as a technical writer and editor in software corporations around Atlanta. In addition, I've been teaching the last 10 years in both public and private school environments. I also taught within our homeschool community classes.

Helping students see their potential is my passion! As their teacher, I love to see them grow by connecting with their learning style, understanding who they are, and encouraging their strengths!

I’m thrilled to be part of such an amazing team at The Academy Virtual! I can’t wait to help make a difference in the students’ lives.

     I am Kim Hawkins, the Executive Director of The Academy GA and also a virtual teacher for The Academy Virtual. As an educator, one of my passions over the last 10 years has been to provide students with the opportunity to experience learning through real-world application. Many times classroom experiences only include opportunities to memorize concepts that capitalize on a students’ short term memory.

My realization that phonemic awareness and phonics needed to be taught explicitly, led me to acquire my certification with Orton-Gillingham, (OG), a structured literacy program similar to the Wilson Reading Program. As an OG instructor, I have used a variety of multi-sensory learning strategies to help all students. However, my students who struggled with phonics, fluency, and/or comprehension benefited most from the daily, explicit, multi-sensory teachings that OG provided.