My name is Suzie and I am the founder and owner of The Family Advocacy Center. My husband Matt and I have been married for 15 years and have 3 lovely children - Susan (13), Aiden (11) and Dylan (9). Both having grown up in Doylestown, we wanted our family close by and to give our kids the experience of our home town as they grew up.
I have been immersed in education since middle school when I started volunteering at a local preschool, which I went on to teach the Pre-K before and during my time in college. I earned my Bachelors in Science for Elementary and Special Education for grades K-12.
From 2004 to 2008, I taught at the Quaker School at Horsham with some of the best educators. This experience shaped me into the educator I became, and my passion for advocating for students. From there, I went on to teach the Special Education Resource Room, Specialized Reading Programs, being an Interventionalist, and the Developmental Kindergarten teacher in Neshaminy until 2015. As our family grew, I wanted to be closer to home and started teaching third grade in Pennridge. During my this time, I earned my Masters in Career Technology Education from Concordia University. My principal saw my enthusiasm as a teacher and the innate skills of adapting/modifying within the classroom for all of my students. It was due to this that she moved me to the Intermediate Life Skills Teaching Position which is where I stayed until I decided to transition my career in teaching to advocating in 2022.
My family means everything to me, which is what lead me to become an advocate. Fighting for what my kids deserved in education was difficult for me...and I was a seasoned Special Educator! This opened my eyes to what families go through (the good, bad and ugly!) during the process of evaluating, meetings, and 504/IEP/GIEP's and knew immediately that this is where my experience and passion could be most utilized to help students.
Today, unfortunately there are many vacancies in education and those numbers are rising. While this is a sad reality, it also doesn't mean your child should suffer in their educational rights. My hope is to assist families in a compacity that works for them. Whether that is interpreting the difficult language, discuss ideas for accommodation's/modifications, connecting you with resources throughout the community, or be an active or listening ear in meetings; I want to help. Let me help to ease the stress during these times so that you can focus on what is most important; your child.
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