Lisa Crosby, M.Ed.
About Lisa
I am lucky to be the mother of three sons. As parents, we all want our children to succeed, and to live up to their personal potential. I am lucky enough to say that my three boys are all finding their personal and professional success as adults now. Each is doing life in their unique way. Two of my sons have their BS in Civil Engineering and MS in Finance. They are using those degrees in different careers: Hospital Director of Facilities and Construction Manager for Airport Remodels. My youngest son is completing his Business degree and pursuing dentistry as a career. Yes, I am a proud mother and also a proud wife since 1988 to my husband and main supporter, Tim.
Education Background
I have a B.S. in Education with a Mathematics Major and Physical Science Minor (1989), and a Literacy Specialist Masters Degree in Education (1999), both from the University of Nevada Reno. I discovered that education was my passion while a Mechanical Engineering student in college, by tutoring college athletes and struggling math students as a side job. I realized that Education was a calling for me, and changed my major in my senior year of engineering to education and I have never looked back. I was motivated to get my Literacy Specialist Masters Degree (in 1999) to learn how to teach specific content area literacy skills and writing skills that affect all subjects and my studies focused on Neuroscience as it applies to Learning. I taught mathematics through Calculus from 1993 to 2005 in two new public high schools in Reno, Nevada.
Neuroscience Focus (1997-Present)
Neuroscience as it applies to Education was also a focus of my graduate degree. I continue to learn and I often attend Learning and the Brain conferences to stay abreast of the latest neuroscience findings as educators are working directly with brains, so it makes sense. I read current research and look for new research-based findings that I can apply to clients’ specific needs. Bringing solutions to situations with clients is a source of joy for me. So much is known that is not being applied in the areas of learning processing, memory techniques, visual perception, and interpretation issues, retention of information, and learning strategies to name a few areas of my expertise. Vocabulary development is another area of my expertise. Dyslexic students find success as well as ADD/ADHD students with experience in these often underserved populations.
Credentials Held
These are the credentials I held while I was teaching in the first 15 years of my career.
– K-8 Elementary
– Secondary Mathematics through Calculus
– Chemistry, Physics, and Physical Sciences
– Literacy Specialist, also valid to teach teachers literacy topics, and train schools or districts to improve reading scores.
Professional Path
For over 10 years I taught in public high schools; I began as a high school math teacher. Having a desire to improve the overall education that my sons received, and the students I taught, I founded a private school, which I ran for ten years. Custom Learning Academy was the name. There was an emphasis on individual learning needs in an emotionally safe culture with a college preparatory expectation. It was a student-centered culture, unlike the product-centered culture of public schools. The results were happy productive students, and amazing test scores proving the growth potential rarely achieved in other schools, which was felt long before the scores verified the experience. Data drives my claims, being the math geek that I am.
From Teacher to Administrator, and now Expert Learning Coach for students and Parents
With a passion for seeing individuals accomplish what they might have thought impossible, I am constantly amazed at the uniqueness of each brain I work with! Human minds are not all the same, and an individualized approach remains my passion. Academic Transformations is called that because I see the trajectory of lives transform with my work. Families find balance when children or adults replace academic struggle with success.
Parents are amazed at the leadership a Family Culture document brings to the children with the structure and expectations clearly communicated. When parents support this with consistency, children feel more secure. This is especially helpful in divorces where mixed academic and discipline messages often erode the stability all children need from parents, whether married or divorced.
Education Advocate
Sometimes parents need help navigating meetings for desired outcomes for their students. I enjoy making that process smooth, efficient and solution-based for the student to find a pathway to success that works for their teachers too. Teachers often thank me for finding solutions that were not immediately obvious to them, as teacher’s jobs can be filled with so many challenges. My job is to advocate for the often complex reasons students are struggling in school. The reasons often require the insight my unique career has taught me to look for, for example, vision stress or lack of executive function skills, both are debilitating and both are trainable, as are many stopping blocks that falsely appear to be laziness or another bad “choice”.
Big academic challenges continue to motivate me to read current education research and search for published and documented strategies to implement, and to my success, I find there are many avenues for situations that seem “hopeless”.
Thank you
Thank you to the many parents who share their experience with their family, friends, and neighbors, and to the educators, and psychologists who refer me to their clients in need of my services. I do not advertise and yet, I have stayed very busy (since 2005). And to those I meet serendipitously, and learn their need for me, I thank divine intervention, as I am living my life’s purpose. I believe nothing happens by accident, and you are reading about me for a reason… I can probably help you. Please complete my contact form and I will contact you for a free initial consultation.
Yours in education, Lisa Crosby, M.Ed.