Meet Our Board of Directors

Dr. Karen Kohler, President, Secretary

Dr. Karen Kohler is an educational leader with expertise in early childhood/elementary education, family engagement, and literacy. She was the former founder and executive director of early childhood literacy programs that focused on professional development for pre-kindergarten and Head Start educators and parents in Texas and California.

Dr. Kohler started her career in education as an elementary school teacher and later a family specialist known for increasing and sustaining parent involvement and family engagement on Title I campuses. Currently, Dr. Kohler is an Adjunct Professor at Texas A&M University, San Antonio, and the University of the Incarnate Word. In addition to teaching classes in Reading, Literacy, and Instructional Methods for pre-service teachers, she was hired to research and develop new program minors for the University of the Incarnate Word.

Dr. Kohler is passionate about educating parents and guardians to be engaged in their children’s education process. She holds a Master’s in Education with an emphasis on Elementary Education and a Doctorate in Education, specializing in Reading and Literacy. Her research interests include family engagement in education, the collaboration between classroom teachers and speech-language pathologists, and best practices for supporting secondary special education teachers and staff.

Kara Mowrey, Ed.D., Treasurer

Dr. Kara Mowrey is a faculty member at San Antonio College and has served as Adjunct Faculty Coordinator for the Student Development department over the past two years. She has over 20 years of teaching experience from middle school to higher education. She is passionate about serving students and, specifically, supporting first-time college students in achieving their academic goals. Dr. Mowrey has served as a mentor for the Faculty Partners initiative in Student Development and works to equip new faculty with innovative strategies to engage students in the classroom and online.

Her journey with advocacy began when her daughter was diagnosed with dyslexia, and she has worked to support families and students with dyslexia as they navigate the educational system. She hopes to empower students to find the services needed to be academically successful.

Dr. Mowrey earned her Bachelor of Science in Education from Baylor University, her Masters in Arts in Counseling, and her Doctor of Education from the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Dr. Mowrey lives in San Antonio, Texas, with her husband of 25 years and two daughters. She enjoys traveling and volunteering in the community.

Virginia Spencer, Board Member

Virginia Spencer is a Special Education Advocate, Dispute Negotiation Coach, and Business Consultant based in Austin, Texas. She helps parents secure a free, appropriate public education for their children with disabilities. In addition, she works on resolving disagreements with schools and creating cohesive teams. Virginia is the parent of 2 adult children with Dyslexia and Dysgraphia.

Kelly Emanuel, MPH, Board Member

For 12 years, Kelly worked primarily as a project manager in the healthcare industry for a global consulting company, insurance companies, a large integrated delivery network, and pharmaceutical companies. When her son and daughter were diagnosed with multiple medical conditions and learning disabilities, Kelly put her career on hold to focus 100% of her efforts on her children. She put her research skills to use by learning everything she could about their conditions and therapies. Kelly trained as a Resource Parent through SPAN, and a special education advocate through COPAA. She has experience with seclusion and restraint issues, physical and social-emotional bullying, and the school district’s failure to provide Child Find services, FAPE and LRE.

For over a decade, Kelly has gained extensive experience with children that have a wide variety of learning disabilities and medical conditions. She has worked with children that have: dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, dyspraxia, auditory processing disorder, ADHD, convergence insufficiency, executive functioning deficits, sensory processing disorder, oral apraxia, and feeding issues, autism (classic, PDD-NOS and Asperger’s), anxiety, depression, trichotillomania, food allergies, and emotional regulation challenges.

In the past, Kelly held leadership positions in various Special Education Parent Teacher Associations. She has experience with fundraising and successfully advocating for additional programs and services. Kelly has been an ABA behavior technician and completed RBT 40 hr training. She has also provided SAT tutoring services to high school students with learning disabilities.

Kelly Emanuel holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Notre Dame and a Master’s degree in Public Health from New York Medical College. She completed approximately half the coursework for a second Master’s degree, a Master of Arts in Teaching, Special Education K-5. She discontinued the program when she decided to homeschool her children full-time.

Kelly lives with her family in North Texas, where she continues to homeschool both children. She has a special interest in assisting children with multiple learning disabilities and behavioral challenges. She is the owner of Starfish Skills, a company that provides information and resources on learning disabilities.

Rachel Krueger - ex-oficio

Edward Schultz, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor at the West College of Education at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, TX. He received his B.S. and Master’s Degree at Midwestern State University and his Ph.D. at the University of North Texas.

In addition to teaching both undergraduate and graduate courses at MSU, he is also program coordinator for the Educational Diagnostician Program. He is the co-author of the C-SEP model. His areas of expertise include SLD identification, multi-tiered systems of support, and emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD).