Our People
Maryellen Rooney Moreau M.Ed. CCC-SLP, president of MindWing Concepts, founded MindWing Concepts, Inc. — with support of colleagues, family and friends — to further her passion: teaching children to think and communicate.
Maryellen has had a career-long interest in helping children develop the oral language skills necessary to be competent in re-tell stories, reading comprehension, writing and critical thinking. She has her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Communication Disorders from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and her Master’s of Education in Communication Disorders from Pennsylvania State University.
She began her professional career in the early 1970s in the Hartford Connecticut Public Schools where she designed and taught the first Language Disabilities Class in the city (one of the few in the nation at that time); thus beginning her research linking oral language development to literacy.
In 1975, Moreau joined the faculty at American International College in Springfield, Massachusetts, and over the course of 25 years developed and taught courses in Speech and Language Development at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Also during her time at the College, she spearheaded the speech/language pathology and public school outreach components at the college’s Curtis Blake Center for Child Development where she served as a diagnostician. Concurrently, she served as Coordinator of the Curriculum Intervention and Professional Development at the Curtis Blake Day School, a placement for students diagnosed with Dyslexia and language learning disabilities.
In 1991, through years of research and practice, she created the Story Grammar Marker®. Maryellen field-tested the tool at the Curtis Blake Day School and local public schools. She and colleague Carolyn West, Ph.D., director of the Clinical and Educational Services at the Curtis Blake Center for Child Development, presented this “new” tool and research-based methodology to a local educational consortium. The response to the Story Grammar Marker® was very positive. The Blake Center then invited Holly
Fidrych, M.S. CCC-SLP, to join the teaching staff at the Curtis Blake Day School to collaborate with Maryellen. The teachers at the school to continue to implement and field-test the Story Grammar Marker®. Maryellen applied for and was awarded a patent on the SGM® icons in 1994.
MindWing Concepts was incorporated in 1994 and began as a cottage industry based in the basement of the home Maryellen shared with her husband and three children. In 2000, MindWing Concepts was accepted as one of the first incubator tenants at the Springfield Business Incubator (SBI) for Entrepreneurs at the Scibelli Enterprise Center at Springfield Technical Community College (STCC) in Springfield, MA. After years of hard work and brilliant assistance from staff at the incubator as well as from colleagues across the country, MindWing “graduated” from the SBI and moved into a brand new office at 1 Federal Street 103-1 – part of STCC’s Technology Park.
MindWing has provided professional development to thousands of education professionals throughout the United States and Canada. MindWing Concepts’ materials are now in the hands of almost half-a-million children worldwide assisting them with oral and written expression, critical thinking, comprehension and social-emotional growth. MindWing’s goal is to help children become successful in SCHOOL and in LIFE.
MindWing Concepts, Inc., 1 Federal Street, #103-1, Springfield, MA 01105
Phone: 413.734.7476
Fax: 413.734.0075
Toll Free: 866.851.2415
Web: mindwingconcepts.com
Contact:
Maryellen Rooney Moreau, M.Ed. CCC-SLP, President and Founder, EMAIL: mrmoreau@mindwingconcepts.com
Sheila Moreau, Vice President of Sales & Marketing, Professional Development Coordinator EMAIL: smmoreau@mindwingconcepts.com
Elizabeth R. Luczynski, Administrative Assistant and Fulfillment, EMAIL: erluczynski@mindwingconcepts.com
Gerald R. Moreau, Accounting, EMAIL: grmoreau@mindwingconcepts.com
Bill Noss, Graphic Designer, EMAIL: mindwing.contact@gmail.com
Consultants, Authors and Contributors:
David Townsend
Sheila Rooney Zagula, M.Ed.
Linda Lafontaine, M.A., CAGS, CCC-SLP
Holly Fidrych, M.S., CCC-SLP
Judy K. Montgomery, Ph.D., CCC-SLP
Brian S. Welch, M.Ed.
Gwynne McElhinney, M.S., CCC-SLP
Biographies:
Maryellen Rooney Moreau, M.Ed., CCC-SLP, president of MindWing Concepts has a passion for helping children to think, communicate and learn. Maryellen earned her University of Massachusetts at Amherst Bachelor of Arts Degree in Communication Disorders at University of Massachusetts at Amherst with Departmental Honors and her Master’s of Education Degree in Communication Disorders at Pennsylvania State University. Prior to founding MindWing Concepts, her forty-year professional career includes school-based SLP, college professor, diagnostician at the Curtis Blake Child Development Center and Coordinator of Intervention Curriculum and Professional Development at the Curtis Blake Day School of American International College, for children with language learning disabilities. She designed the Story Grammar Marker® after years of research and practice and was awarded 2 United States Patents. In 2014, she received the Alice H. Garside Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Dyslexia Association, Massachusetts Branch (MABIDA) for exemplary leadership, service or achievement in the area of helping children with dyslexia and language learning disabilities. She has written more than 15 publications and developed more than 40 hands-on tools based on this methodology. The Story Grammar Marker® and related tools are in the hands of over a million of children worldwide and Moreau is an internationally recognized professional development presenter. Click here for Maryellen’s CV
Sheila M. Moreau, M.Ed., is the Vice President of Sales and Marketing and Professional Development Coordinator of MindWing Concepts. Sheila has her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from St. Anselm College and her Master’s of Education Degree from Cambridge College. Sheila has twenty years of experience in marketing and sales in the telecommunications, commercial real estate, fundraising and educational publishing industries. As the daughter of Maryellen, Sheila was thrilled at the opportunity in 2003 to come to work with her mother to further Maryellen’s extraordinary work. She travels extensively throughout North America with Maryellen providing professional development training for education professionals and sells MindWing’s materials around the globe. Sheila co-authored The Essential SGM® with Maryellen, drawing on her experience in her graduate studies. Sheila was on the Early Literacy Advisory Board of Cherish Every Child (Irene E. and George A. Davis Foundation); she sits on the Board of Directors for the International Volleyball Hall of Fame, and serves as Co-Chair of Marketing and Sponsorship for the St. Patrick’s Committee of Holyoke, Inc., for which she was awarded the 2014 George E. O’Connell Award for fundraising. In 2012, Moreau was recognized by BusinessWest journal, selected for the “40 Under Forty” Award, which is given annually to 40 men and women under the age of 40 in Western Massachusetts who have made an impact in their professional career as well as in volunteer capacities. Click here for Sheila’s CV