Annette Spector, Educational Consultant, is the Executive Director of Diagnostic & Educational Resources, Inc. She has spent over thirty years in the education profession in both the public and private sectors. She has worked as a teacher of both regular and special education. Besides teaching, Mrs. Spector's previous positions have been academic supervisor of a private school for children with learning disabilities and ADHD, and owner and director of Traveling Tutors, a well-established, award-winning tutoring company which provided one-to-one tutoring and graduate test preparation courses around the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. After selling Traveling Tutors, Mrs. Spector established Diagnostic & Educational Resources, Inc. in 1991.

Mrs. Spector has extensive experience diagnosing and remediating learning disabilities and executive function deficits, and gives workshops for parents and teachers with practical suggestions for use of specialized methodologies. She provides a full range of educational and cognitive testing, including testing for learning styles, achievement and gifted testing, kindergarten readiness, and screenings for ADHD. Mrs. Spector's parent advocacy services include assistance for, and participation in, public school special education eligibility processes, IEP development and review, 504 plans, school placement issues, and working with classroom teachers on adaptive and compensatory teaching techniques and accommodations. She also provides individualized remedial tutoring during after school hours in reading, written language, study and organizational skills. Finally, Mrs. Spector owns and directs a graduate test preparation division that focuses on preparing college students for graduate entrance examinations.

Mrs. Spector holds a B.A. in Education from Brooklyn College, M.S.Ed. from Queens College, and has been certified in elementary education, learning disabilities, and administration and supervision. Mrs. Spector has published numerous articles on a wide variety of education topics, and has been a national presenter at CHADD's annual national conference, speaking on Writer's Block and written language techniques for reluctant writers. Mrs. Spector is on CHADD's Northern Virginia Professional Advisory board, and leads a parent support group in McLean, VA. for parents with children who have ADHD.

In June, 2003, Mrs. Spector was recognized by CHADD of Northern Virginia as the outstanding professional of the year

Course Coordinator

Elisabeth Wester is D.E.R.'s Office Manager and Course Coordinator. She has been an integral part of D.E.R. for ten years. Ms. Wester schedules all appointments for our director, including coordinating educational consultations, testing sessions, school visits, and tutoring sessions. Ms. Wester provides information about our extensive services to parents, college students, schools, and institutions of higher learning. She is an invaluable resource who is always available to assist our clients.

In her role as Course Coordinator, Ms. Wester manages a core staff of twenty instructors. She coordinates and facilitates training sessions for our new instructors and continuously monitors instructor evaluations completed by the students who enroll in our courses. Ms. Wester is the chief liaison staff person who directly communicates with schools to schedule courses, confirm enrollment, course locations, materials, and equipment. Additionally, Ms. Wester assists our instructors with curriculum planning and revision of our course materials, including study guides and instructor manuals.