Solimar Academy’s Certified LearningSuccess Coaches

Dawn Jackson, M.Ed Director/Educational Coach and Speaker

Dawn Jackson is a certified teacher, LearningSuccessTM Coach, Advocate for children with special needs and a Specialist for children who have been diagnosed with learning challenges. Her background and experience began over 20 years ago while home schooling her own children and owning her own tutoring business. She pursued her education in teaching with two credentials and a Master’s Degree in Special Education. She has worked with homeschooling families for over 10 years teaching parents how to understand the way their children learn and how to support them at home. She is skilled in workshops in reading and writing, personalized learning and child advocacy, and helping families to understand the IEP process.

Dawn’s greatest passion is supporting students to learn and gain the confidence they need in their abilities to become the person they are meant to be. It is her goal to bring this support to families in a meaningful way, starting first with understanding their children’s learning styles and Dispositions (and their own) through an online Power Traits assessment and then taking them through the process of a personalized learning plan.

Mariaemma Pelullo-Willis

Mariaemma Pelullo-Willis was born and grew up in Southern California. She attended California State University Northridge where she received a B.S. in Psychology. She holds a Master’s degree in Education, and California Life Teaching Credentials for Regular and Special Education. She has been developing educational programs and conducting workshops for parents and teachers for more than 20 years.

Mariaemma was the director of a private learning center for children with learning disabilities before going into private practice. After 13 years of assessing and treating children and adults for learning “dysfunctions” she knew that she could no longer follow this erroneous and harmful model of education and began researching alternatives. For the last 16 years her passion has been guiding children and their families to understand and appreciate their natural gifts and abilities, and helping adults recuperate from negative school experiences that keep them from discovering their passions and potentials.

Victoria Kindle Hodson

Victoria Kindle Hodson was born and grew up in the Pacific Northwest. She attended Western Washington University and holds a Master’s degree in Psychology and a Bachelor’s degree in Education. She is an educational consultant and has taught, developed educational programs, and conducted workshops for parents and teachers for more than 25 years.

Victoria has worked in many diverse educational settings that have provided experience with the needs of widely different kinds of learners. She has trained in special education, parenting, communication skills development, and Montessori education. Over the last 30 years she has been developing an alternative way of viewing children as learners. The learning techniques and strategies she encourages are based on her research, insight, and experience in psychology and education.

Barbara Cook

Barbara is a Level 3 Certified LearningSuccess™ Coach certified by the creators of the Self-Portrait Assessment, Mariaemma Pelullo-Willis, and Victoria Kindle Hodson  (This means the completion of 18 hours of Level 1 Training, 30 hours plus the practice of Level 2 Training, and an intensive Level 3 Training, consisting of 84 hours of class time plus a yearlong internship).

As your Solimar learning coach, Barbara establishes a supportive relationship focused on the discovery of the learner’s interests. These interests become a centralized focus of the learning process. Barbara knows that real-life application of learning promotes student purpose and life goals. Among her own goals is to be a valuable resource, motivate a creative spirit, and inspire student learning that continues for a lifetime.

Barbara is an educator with twenty-five+ years of alternative education experience and education. Her experience includes Waldorf teacher certification, independent-study, and online school teaching, one-on-one personalization of curriculum, after-school classroom teacher, resource for un-schoolers, and homeschooling her children. Barbara’s degree(s) focuses on the holistic learning needs of Elementary students. Barbara wants you to know that experiential learning motivates learners to participate in their learning and curiosity and encourages exploration of new ideas. New ideas lead to the discovery of new interests and knowledge.

Stephanie Gocke

Stephanie Gocke is a credentialed teacher with over 20 years of teaching experience. She was born and raised in Southern California. She attended Cal State San Bernardino where she received her Bachelor’s degree in Liberal Studies. Next she attended Cal State Bakersfield where she received her Teaching Credential.

Stephanie began her career teaching both 5th and 6th grade in a traditional classroom. After 8 years of teaching in a classroom she began working with the homeschool community. She has worked with three different Charter Schools over the last 12 years. During this time Stephanie has worked with many homeschool families helping them create an individualized homeschool journey.

Stephanie is passionate about helping both children and parents reach their highest potential. Power Traits Assessment plays a key role because not only does it provide an insight into how one learns but offers a deeper understanding of one’s disposition. Combining learning style along with inherited mind and character traits gives a deeper understanding of how to develop a personalized learning plan for each child. Within this personalized learning plan we can provide proven teaching techniques, helpful materials and preferred activities to enhance each child’s learning experience.

Not only has Stephanie worked with many homeschool families but she has 9 years of experience homeschooling her two boys Titus and Maximus. She recently helped in establishing a community co-op where she teaches latin, composition and history classes.

Stephanie currently resides in Minden, Nevada. She has been married to her husband for over 20 years! Together they have 7 children and 9 grandchildren. Stephanie loves family time, hiking, baseball, and volunteers at a local women’s clinic.