Candidates for 2026 Election

“Meredith was born in a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia. She attended Woodward Academy and graduated from high school in 1988. In 1992, she graduated from the University of Georgia in Athens with a Bachelor’s degree in French Language and Literature, then taught elementary French for a number of years in Atlanta. 

In 1995, she moved to New York to attend the graduate program in Linguistics at New York University (NYU). In 1998, she received her Master’s Degree and spent some time teaching English as a Foreign Language and French, in Slovakia and in France. In 2004, she received her Ph.D. in Linguistics (more specifically, Sociolinguistics) from NYU. She was an Assistant Professor of English at Utica College in New York State from 2003 to 2005, then moved to the West Coast with her husband.

From 2006 to 2016, she was a senior lecturer in the Department of English at Western Washington University, where she taught for the Department of Linguistics, theDepartment of French, as well as for the Department of English Language Learners (ELL). During that time, her first son was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Sensing that her other children were also on the spectrum, Meredith did some educational coursework in Autism.

In 2016, she and her husband moved back to the East Coast, to Massachusetts. While at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Meredith taught courses on linguistics (Introduction to Linguistics, African American English), literature (Monsters), and several composition classes. She then transitioned to work in the public school sector. At Gardner Public Schools, she was the Director of English Learners and the Grants Administrator.

In 2018, Meredith learned that one of her children had dysgraphia, and another had dyscalculia and dyslexia. In order to help them, she trained in the Orton-Gillingham method with Orton-Gillingham Academy (https://www.ortonacademy.org/). As such, Meredith is certified as an Orton-Gillingham Practitioner (Associate Level, A/OGA).  She is also certified to teach Reading (all levels), English Learners (EL) (all levels), and English Language Arts (grades 5-12). She has licensure as a public school Non-Core Supervisor/Director, Core Supervisor/Director, and is state certified to teach the Massachusetts course “Sheltered English Instruction (SEI)” to both teachers and administrators.

Meredith was the “Director of Literacy”, “Coordinator of Student Support (K-4)”, and “Federal Grants Coordinator” at Applewild School in Fitchburg for several years. Currently, she is a reading specialist in the public schools and adjunct faculty in the EDLM and EDUC departments at Fitchburg State University.”