Our Team
We look forward to helping build a brighter tomorrow for the children with special needs and their families residing in the UAE. We are confident that we can meet the challenges ahead and stand ready to partner with the schools and agencies whose job is to find ways to make inclusion easier, attainable, and successful.
We are working to create communities where all people are accepted simply for who they are.
Advisory Board and Team Members
Our combined experience (64+years) of service to individuals and the SEN community , dedication to the success of
this project and the empowerment of those who learn a different way on a different day is the heartbeat of this
enterprise. We are committed to the movement. We are the change makers.
Carla Lawrence has served as the caseworker, teacher of record and push-in collaborative teacher in multi-grade level special, and general education environments for over 10 years. Her classrooms have included students with ADD/ADHD, Autism, Mildly Intellectually Disabled, Specific Learning Disabilities, Traumatic Brain Injury, Speech Impairment, Oppositional Defiance Disorder and Emotional Behavior Disorder. She has helped to open and manage a Learning Center in the U.S. specializing in training at-risk youth and adults interview/occupational skills, GED (test) preparation, ESOL assistance and computer literacy. She also created/developed monthly workshops for parents/guardians of exceptional students, sharing information about resources, strategies to prevent holiday regression, and the importance of advocating skills.
Carla Lawrence
Tonia Mexile has been working in special education for over 15 years. She has taught diverse groups of students with ADD/ADHD, Autism, Mildly Intellectually Disabled, Specific Learning Disabilities, Speech Impairments, and Emotional Behavior Disorders. Her skills in differentiated instruction, assistive technology, and multi-sensory lesson planning allow her to meet the needs of every student. She is currently a SEN Coordinator here in the UAE and is excited to be part of a plan to help her SEN “babies” to fly.
Tonia Mexile
Dr. Natasha Griffin has spent 24 years in education. She has had the privilege of being a teacher on the preschool, elementary, and secondary levels, building level and district office administrator, and national accreditation specialist. On the collegiate side, she has dedicated her life to working with aspiring and veteran educators globally as a professor and course developer. Now certified in Applied Behavior Analysis Therapy (ABA), she thrives in proving all children can succeed in some capacity. dedicating her career to students considered to be “at-risk”.
Natasha Griffin
Daryl Johnson graduated magna cum laude with a degree in criminal justice before joining the U.S. Air
Force. A thirteen-year stint in law enforcement followed his military retirement. His background includes
positions as Trainer/Instructor at:
*ILEETA (International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association)
*law enforcement academies at various community colleges
*Delta Airlines and Air Canada
*Abu Dhabi police dept
And Executive Protection/Team Lead duties for:
*The Bill Gates Foundation’s protective ops division,
*Exxon Mobile in Papua, New Guinea
Daryl Johnson
Majd is a trainer and a coach. He has experience working with local and international organizations across the Middle East, Asia, and the United States in various fields of operation for 15 years. His strengths are his team-building abilities, intercultural communication expertise, resilience, conflict resolution skills, and the behavioral etiquette needed to teach de-escalation techniques. Guiding individuals to understand the strength of their full potential and how to use it to their advantage – that’s what he does all day, every day!
Majd Alusta
Dr. Ricardo Archbold – Professor of Business at Khalifah University with over 40 years of experience in financial operations,
budgets and entrepreneurial endeavors in Corporate America, will oversee the financial segment of this proposed plan.
