Mary Jane Freeman, M.A.ED.


Mary Jane Freeman is a lifelong educator and brings more than thirty years of experience in working with children and families. After twenty years as a classroom teacher and guidance counselor in both middle school and high school, she has worked privately as an educational consultant and has assisted hundreds of students and families in finding the right colleges, boarding schools and special needs programs. A Certified Educational Planner, she has traveled extensively to visit colleges, boarding schools and therapeutic programs that serve children and adolescents with special needs. An active member of IECA (Independent Educational Consultant Association), she has served as an officer and board member as well as serving on numerous projects and committees. In addition to a B.A. from San Jose State University, Mary Jane holds a M.A. Ed. in Counseling from Washington University, St. Louis and a Certificate of Advanced Study in Administration and Supervision from Fairfield University. Originally from California, she has also lived and worked in the states of Arizona, Missouri, Connecticut, New York and North Carolina. As the co-founder of The Davidson Center, she had the unique opportunity to bring together highly qualified professionals to address the learning needs of children and adolescents.

Mary Jane recognizes that improving school performance can be a complex process and often requires an integrated approach that considers a child’s abilities, motivation, confidence, emotional well-being, and his or her school environment; simply working on academic skills, without direct application to current school work and confidence building, is not sufficient in improving school performance and achieving higher grades.

For over twenty years, Mary Jane has worked closely with Dr. Gary Patrick in conducting psychological and academic evaluations. The comprehensive results provide diagnostic information leading to individualized recommendations and a specific plan outlining interventions and solutions.

Gary L. Patrick, Ph.D., ABPP


Gary L. Patrick, Ph.D., ABPP has worked with children and adolescents for over thirty years. Initially, he was a teacher of children with learning disabilities prior to becoming a psychologist. In addition to doctoral training in school and community psychology, he also has had formal education in special education and speech and language as well as the unique opportunity to complete his dissertation in the vision training practice of a past president of the American Optometric Association.

He has also studied teaching approaches for those with special educational needs in the Scandinavian countries, and he completed a practicum experience in a German school for children with learning disabilities. Dr. Patrick is also board certified in organizational and consulting psychology by the American Board of Professional Psychology.

His unique educational experiences have been employed in providing and supervising school psychological services for a number of school systems, assisting in the development of a child and development center, and engaging privately with individuals, schools, and learning centers. He has worked with a wide range of children and adolescents with handicapping conditions in a variety of settings.

He has recently coauthored a book with Rosanne Manus to assist parents to be more effective in helping their children to learn. The title is Tackling Academic Barriers: A Parent’s Guide to Understanding the Complexities of Learning and Choosing the Right Professionals to Help Your Child Learn. Dr. Patrick and Ms. Manus sincerely hope that their insights into learning and child development can assist parents to better meet their children’s psycho-educational needs.

Over the past decade, Dr. Patrick and Ms. Freeman have evaluated over one thousand students at the Davidson Center. They look forward to continuing to meet the needs of students and families in the future.

Tanya Chartier, M.A.


Tanya Chartier holds a B.A. in English Literature from Denison University and a M.A. in the Teaching of Reading from Western Michigan University between which she was awarded a Fullbright Grant to study literacy in Japan. She has taught at the elementary, middle school, and collegiate levels. Previously an Adjunct Lecturer in Education at Davidson College, Tanya has stepped into the role of Executive Director and continues as an Educational Therapist at The Davidson Center. Tanya enjoys empowering readers, writers, and mathematicians following diagnostic work from which she crafts individualized plans to remediate literacy and math skills and builds critical strategies for understanding. Tanya is a featured artist and master teacher in local, state, national, and international settings. She is passionate about structuring learning environments that ignite students’ intrinsic initiative as well as guiding each individual to become a lifelong learner who finds joy in reading, writing and engaging in mathematics. Tanya resides in Davidson, NC with her husband and their two children.

Abbe Granelle


Abbe Granelle serves as our Office Manager and direct assistant to Mary Jane Freeman. Abbe has been with The Davidson Center for 14 years. As a mom of children with special needs, she has a unique understanding of our mission and the struggles many of our families face. She resides in Mooresville with her husband, 3 children, and 2 grandsons.

Kathy Hervey


Kathy is a licensed K-12 Spanish teacher. Though born in New Jersey, Kathy grew up in Latin America and is therefore a native speaker. Kathy has been a teacher and interpreter for many years. She enjoys tutoring and teaching at The Davidson Center as it gives her one-on-one time with the students. She specializes in getting students organized, teaching them to visually see how the language works, and building on that base. Having a written notes binder gives them something to refer back on in class. Spanish builds on itself so each year’s understanding is vital to the next. She reviews concepts they miss in previous years/months, with a lot of repetition and written exercises, which enables the student to feel confident about their knowledge. She wants her students to enjoy learning the language.

Connie Johnston


Connie Johnston received her B.S. degree from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana with a major in Computer Science. She spent ten years working in the insurance industry doing software development. While there, she received her M.B.A. from the University of Indianapolis. She went on to teach in the Indianapolis Public Schools for 23 years. She has taught all levels of mathematics from middle school through AP Calculus AB. Prior to joining The Davidson Center, she worked with Hands on Charlotte in their tutoring program.

Amanda Miller, B.A.


Amanda is a well-traveled and very energetic graduate of Davidson College. Before returning to Davidson, she taught world history and mathematics to 7th and 8th graders in Lake Village, Arkansas as a Teach For America Corps member. As a tutor at the Davidson Center, she enjoys providing bright minds with the tools and the confidence they need to succeed in the classroom and beyond. Although she specializes in the areas of math, SAT preparation, and study skills, she is comfortable assisting students with a wide variety of subjects including biology and elementary Japanese!

Candice Meyer, Ph.D.


Dr. Candice Meyer holds a Ph.D. in Educational Administration with a minor in Curriculum and Instruction; an M.S. in Reading; an M.S. in Educational Administration; and a B.A. in Art Education. She has experience teaching children, adolescents, and adults from emergent reading to college preparation. She has 25 years of experience as a reading specialist in public education; 2 years of experience as a reading research associate at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte; and is presently a reading instructor at Central Piedmont Community College. She assists Davidson students with all levels of reading, GED, and SAT preparation.

Vinod Thomas


Vinod Thomas is a graduate of North Mecklenburg High School and Davidson College. Additionally he has studied at Cambridge University in England, and is pursuing graduate studies in general science education at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Vinod earned his B.A. from Davidson College with a major in history and a minor in chemistry. Vinod tutors in a broad range of subjects ranging from the humanities to the sciences, as well as offering specialized test prep for the SAT and the ACT. Vinod serves as Test Prep Coordinator at The Davidson Center.

Courtney Yasuda, B.S.


 Courtney graduated in 2017 with a B.S. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Electronic Media, Arts, and Communication.  Throughout her four years of college, she specialized in studying children’s media and entertainment.  She worked directly with the National Institute of Health to create engaging, educational material for its medical students. After moving to Charlotte in January 2020, Courtney went on to earn her certification in Independent Educational Counseling from UC Irvine. She currently works as a college advisor at the Davidson Center, specializing in students looking to pursue majors in the arts.  She also preps students for the SAT and ACT, and tutors are variety of subjects from K-12.

Pam Notemyer Rogers


Pam has spent the last 25 plus years in higher education working with students, families, and college administrators to help improve the overall student experience. Throughout her career Pam has visited close to 100 college campuses and met with students and families counseling them on college admissions and the financial aid process. Her passion lies with helping students find their best fit and working with them to create a pathway.

Pam is a graduate of Simmons College in Boston and has served as a Vice President of enrollment, faculty, student services advisor and financial administrator. She has served on as a college board member and locally in North Carolina at a K-12 charter school.

As a Mom of three children, one who graduated Appalachian State, one who is a junior at Appalachian State, and her youngest is a junior in high school she understands the college process as a parent and looks forward to working with families to navigate and guide them.

Brett Freeman


Allison Simpson