Oklahoma Chapter

Providing student successes from early childhood to adults, Dawn Vaughn is an experienced educator in all fields. Dawn has created programs and accommodations for students with IEPs, 504s, and gifted students of all ages. She has taught reading, math, and science in Title 1 and parent choice schools in Oklahoma and Texas. Forty-plus years of educational experience has yielded success with public, private, homeschooled, and college students. Classroom, small group, and individual settings for dyslexia reading instruction have proven to be the most rewarding educational mission accepted in the last decade. Dawn is a Certified Academic Language Therapist (CALT), and an instructor of therapists (CALT-QI), Structured Literacy Dyslexia Specialist (C-SLDS) and has held National Board Certification as an Early Childhood Generalist (NBCT Early Childhood Specialist). She has mastered therapy and classroom-based Orton-Gillingham methodology. Dawn holds a B.S. in Elementary and an M.A. in Educational Administration.

Billie Larsh has worked in education for 28 years. She currently serves as district curriculum coordinator/instructional facilitator for elementary reading, and language arts in the Midwest City-Del City School District in Oklahoma. Billie received her bachelor’s degree in elementary education from the University of Oklahoma in 1994. She received her master’s degree in reading curriculum and instruction from Grand Canyon University in 2004. In 2012, Billie completed her CALT certification and became QI in 2015. 

In her current position, Billie works to help teachers advance their knowledge of dyslexia and how to help struggling readers in the general education classroom. Billie’s passion is to ensure that students are receiving systematic, explicit instruction in the early grades along with interventions and support so that struggling readers can succeed.    

Karmyn graduated from Oklahoma City University with a degree in Elementary Education and a minor in music. She received her Masters of Reading from East Central University in 2001. Her teaching career began in 1997 at Tecumseh Public Schools, where she taught first, fourth and fifth grades. In 2006 she was hired as a Reading Specialist, working closely with teachers and students to help in all areas of reading. In 2012, she started her training with Payne Education Center as a Dyslexia Therapist. Karmyn finished her CALT certification, completed the Qualified Instructor (CALT-QI) program with Payne. Karmyn loves to help students become better readers, spellers, and writers, and her passion is seeing dyslexic students excel.

Ginger graduated from Northeastern State University with a degree in Elementary Education. She taught first grade at Catoosa Public for the second half of the school year 2000-2001, then stayed home to raise her two sons. She reentered teaching in 2011, teaching sixth-grade math for one year and seventh-grade geography for seven years at Oklahoma Virtual Charter Academy. She received her training at the Payne Education Center and earned her CALT in 2016. She has worked with dyslexic students ever since. She has been teaching with EPIC Charter Schools since 2019 and recently completed year one of the LETRS training.

Christy graduated from East Central University with a degree in Elementary Education and a minor in science. She received her Master of Reading from the University of Central Oklahoma in 1994. Her teaching career began in 1991, teaching a combined 3rd/4th-grade classroom. She went on to teach 2nd,4th, and 6th grades, as well as elementary special education. Christy began working as a Title I Reading

Specialist in 2006. In 2016, she started her training with Payne Education Center as a Dyslexia Therapist.  Christy finished her CALT certification in 2018 at Payne Education Center and has truly found her passion in teaching reading, spelling, and writing to elementary students with reading difficulties.