Diana Black Kennedy, MA, BCET, is a board certified educational therapist with a thriving private practice in San Anselmo, California.
Her extensive classroom experience spans second grade through high school; rural, urban and suburban settings; and public and private schools. She has taught high school in rural Mississippi with Teacher for America; third grade in a small charter school in a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood in Oakland where almost all of her students were new immigrants or first-generation Americans; second grade in the second-largest school in inner-city Oakland, a school that was 50 percent Hispanic and 50 percent black; fifth, third, and eighth grade at a small private Jewish day school in a relatively wealthy suburb of San Francisco; and algebra in an independent school in Marin for kids with learning disabilities, autism, and ADHD. In her private practice as an educational therapist, she has worked one-on-one with students with learning disabilities, those who are gifted and talented, and those who are twice exceptional. This unusually wide and varied experience gives her a perspective—and lots of stories—few educational writers have.
She holds a Certificate in Educational Therapy from the University of California, Santa Cruz, a Master’s Degree in Elementary Education from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Master’s Degree in English Literature from Indiana University, Bloomington. She presents and provides professional development nationally and internationally. She leads the Marin County Association of Educational Therapists (AET) Study Group and is Board Chair and Secretary for Marin Educators in Private Practice (MEPP). She writes a blog about education at www.MindSparkLearning.com.
