Our CCI Team
We empower teachers by providing comprehensive professional development in multi-sensory, structured, and sequential literacy instruction.
Mark Hitchcock
Chief Operating Officer
A native of Bay City, Mark Hitchcock has over 20 years of professional leadership experience, primarily in the nonprofit industry. Hitchcock holds Master of Business Administration and Bachelor of Business Administration degrees from Northwood University. Hitchcock served for ten years in the US Army Reserve and deployed with his unit to Iraq in 2004-05.
Hitchcock worked for nearly ten years in the recreation industry, in various ice arena management positions, has served in the roles of Executive Director of the Tawas Area Chamber of Commerce, Extension Educator with Michigan State University Extension, Event Manager with the Alzheimer’s Association and most recently as CEO of the Pulse3 Foundation.
With a strong sense of service, he has given back to his community by serving in various volunteer and board leadership roles throughout his career as well.
Nancy Williams
Clinical Director & Lead Trainer
Nancy has been involved in education and language instruction for almost 30 years. With a Bachelor’s in Special Education from Michigan State University and a Master’s in Reading Difficulties from Marygrove College, her passion has always been to see all students and educators succeed in understanding the structure and content of language.
Beginning in 2008, Nancy started tutoring struggling readers through the Children’s Dyslexia Center for the Great Lakes Bay Region. In 2014, she was promoted to Center Director and helped turn it into one of the largest CDC tutoring facilities in the country.
Nancy has also served on the Michigan Board for the International Dyslexia Association and has been a featured presenter at national and international conferences on reading.
Heidi Krause
Business Development Director
Heidi Krause is the Business Development Director for the Children’s Choice Initiative, with a focus on building partnerships with schools and districts across the state of Michigan. Heidi is an accomplished business to business sales professional and a successful retailer with over 20 years of experience.
She includes building lasting relationships with her clients in her list of achievements. Heidi is a graduate of The University of Michigan-Flint, earning a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing.
Outside of work, Heidi has always valued giving back to her community in various ways. She has served on local festival committees, was elected to her local library board where she served as treasurer, and taught Sunday School. She has been invited to speak at community engagements for seniors as well as local service clubs.
She has especially enjoyed participating in the elementary school job fair at her local school district over the years.
To contact Heidi directly you can email her at heidi@ccimichigan.org.
Brad Williams
Curriculum Development & Tech Support
Brad is a career educator earning his Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education – Cognitive Impairments from Michigan State University in 1992, and receiving his Master’s Degree from Central Michigan in 2003 for School Counseling.
He has worked in a variety of K-8 special and general education classrooms for three different districts, and served as a middle school counselor for three years.
Brad also has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in teacher education. He currently serves as a special education and inclusion teacher at Grayling Middle School.
He is an accomplished author with several books for children and life counseling to his credit.
Our Trainers
Kristine Redwanz
Trainer
Lisa Lisius
Trainer
Lisa has taught for 11 years in a variety of grades and subjects from preschool to 8th grade. She earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s in Early Childhood from Saginaw Valley State University. She currently teaches 5th-8th grade math/science at State Street Academy in Bay City. She is also a certified tutor and trainer through the Children’s Dyslexia Center.
Lori Wilson
Trainer
Lori is a recently retired school teacher with a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Studies and English Language Arts from the University of Michigan – Flint and a Master’s degree in the Art of Literacy from Central Michigan. For most of her career in education, she thoroughly enjoyed teaching language arts skills to middle schoolers.
Lori also served as a Title 1 Reading Specialist working in small group settings and focusing on teaching Orton-Gillingham strategies to struggling 5th-8th grade students in Clio Area Schools. She has received training through the Institute for Multisensory Education and is a certified Structured Literacy Trainer through Children’s Choice Initiative.
“Unlocking Children’s Unlimited Potential Through Reading!™”
We believe the key is to train teachers in multi-sensory, structured, sequential language.
“When children learn how language is structured, they can read anything!”
~ Nancy Williams, Director, Children’s Choice Initiative.
The key to improving standardized testing results is to teach students how to understand language and discover its many patterns. Children’s Choice Initiative offers this key to you!