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Beverly A. Normand, Ph.D., Founder and President, is a consultant for public and private schools in Illinois, and is lecturer and adjunct professor for several universities. She recently retired from the Office of Specialized Services, Chicago Public Schools, after thirty-four years of service as Special Education Teacher, Citywide Instructional Specialist, and Facilitator for School Based Problem Solving/Response to Intervention programs in Psychology and Special Education. She earned degrees from Roosevelt University, DePaul University and Chicago State University. She was a contributing writer for several publications of Chicago Public Schools, is the recipient of numerous educational awards, special recognitions, and various grants. She has written and hosted several educational television programs, has been published in numerous journals and magazines and has participated in various research projects.
A poet, designer, lyricist and patron of the arts, she has collaborated with artists and musicians on special projects and has planned and coordinated cultural programs and art exhibitions for school children, churches and other institutions throughout her adult life.
Serving as Commissioner of Religion and Race for the United Methodist Church in the South Shore Community of Chicago for twenty years, Normand developed activities and programs to support African American history and culture, while also planning activities and programs to strengthen multi-cultural exchange and diversity training. She served as editor for the Nimbus publication for many years.
Normand has helped thousands of pupils, parents, teachers, ancillary teams and school administrators, and is highly respected for her integrity, creativity and skills. "I believe in interdisciplinary instruction and all curricula that stimulate the imagination and lead us away from mediocrity and complacency. The mission of Rald Institute is to reduce the at-risk population, support children and individuals with special needs in a manner which leads to self-actualization, support as many parents and teachers as we can, and help twenty-first century educational leaders maintain integrity and democratic forms of leadership, while problem solving."
Board of Directors:
Beverly A. Normand, Ph.D., President
Davida Miriam Markham, BA, Vice President
Casaundra Ross, BA, Secretary
Sharon Alexander, BA, Treasurer
Sharon Williams Adams, MA
Harold Chris Coley, Ed.D.
Obry Collins
Ruben Harris, MS
Marypat Robertson, MA
Erma R. Jaubert
Sheila Lavizzo, MA, M.Ed.
Elva Z. Posey, MAEd, MS.Ed., RN, BSN
Bernard Richard, LCSW
Janice Richard, MS., M.Ed.
Jacqueline P. Robbins
Terry Michael Ross
Gerald Sanders
Joan M. Sassano, MA, M.Ed.
Robert Abbott Sengstacke
Judith E. Stanton, MSW
Davida Miriam Markham, Vice President, began her career of working with disabled children in the speech and language department of a high school for trainable, mentally disabled teens in Chicago. She assisted speech pathologists while studying for her bachelors degree in psychology at Chicago State University, and obtained her license in Child Endangerment and Risk Assessment. Simultaneously, she undertook independent studies in reading and special education and began volunteering and advocating for children with severe cognitive deficiencies. Her dedication and skill as a Child Welfare Specialist earned citywide recognition for her in schools, state and city agencies and Juvenile Courts. She is well known and respected for her exemplary work, integrity, and services for children in the foster care system in Illinois. She was recently honored for exemplary work with CARC, Chicago Association for Disabled Citizens. Davida assists the CEO of Rald Institute with development and administrative tasks and facilitates capital campaign activities.
Casaundra Ross
Casaundra Ross, trained extensively in youth advocacy, brings to Rald Institute her unique ability to assess organizational needs, focus attention on the most critical issues, and to facilitate responses to change. As a Marketing Consultant, Casaundra has over 17 years of highly successful experience in providing strategic planning, organizational development, and marketing services to non-profit organizations, public agencies and businesses. Casaundra holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications from the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point, and has been a Rald Institute board member for several years.
"Character is Power." ~ Booker T. Washington
Judith Muwwakkil Stanton
Judith Muwwakkil Stanton is a founding Board Member of Rald Institute, and assists with Board development and research. She earned degrees from the University of California at Berkeley and the Jane Adams College of Social Work in Chicago, Illinois. She has a long history of dedicated social work service, first in Chicago, and in recent years in the Harbor Country area of Michigan.
Judith was the first African American female Ombudsman for the Cook County Department of Corrections, Chicago, Illinois in 1975. She was the spokesperson for the inmate populace on institutional grievances and worked as the Liason between inmates, Board of Directors and Sheriff Richard Elrod. Prior to that, she worked as a Job Development Counselor for the Safer Foundation for ex-offenders and Program Director for research sponsored by the Department of Mental Health in Chicago.
She was a Clinical Social Worker at Rush-Presbyterian St. Luke Medical Center in Chicago, where she supervised graduate students, assessed patients, worked on the crisis intervention team and trained staff in program development, research and evaluation, quality assurance process and review. She has been Manager of Education for the Better Boys Foundation, Program Director for the Blue Gargoyle Youth Service Center, and Executive Director for Chicago Youth Centers in Chicago.
She served as Executive Director of the Boys and Girls Club of Benton Harbor, Michigan from 2001 to 2005, and is currently the Executive Director of Camping Services for Chicago Youth Centers' Camp Rosenthal in Dowagiac, Michigan. She is also an independent consultant. She has received numerous awards including, Outstanding Young Women of America, Better Boys Foundation Service Awards, National Association of Business, Distinguished Women Award of WCA of Berrien County, Michigan and many other awards.
Harold C. Coley
It is in our incompleteness, of which we are aware, that education as a permanent process is grounded. Women and men are capable of being educated only to the extent that they are capable of recognizing themselves as unfinished. Education does not make us educable. It is our awareness of being unfinished that makes us educable.
Paulo Freire
It is this spirit of growing and learning that guides the work of Harold C. Coley. Harold is currently serving on 12 doctoral committees for National-Louis University’s Educational Leadership Department in the capacity of reader/advisor. His students, many of whom are principals and administrators in various Chicago suburban school districts, are writing dissertation proposals that will guide their research over the next school year. In addition, Harold serves as NLU faculty advisor to 8 City of Chicago doctoral students who are participants in the educational leadership internship program while they fulfill the Illinois requirements for the superintendent endorsement certificate.
Prior to these positions, Harold taught in the NLU graduate departments of Educational Leadership and the Department of Research and Inquiry. Harold also serves on the board of directors of The Rald Institute, a non-profit Chicago community organization whose purpose is to educate learning disabled students. The over-arching goal of The Rald Institute is to enhance the self-worth of the students while strengthening their cognitive and affective domains. Another ongoing endeavor is Harold’s service on The Golden Apple Foundation’s selection committee. Annually The Golden Apple Foundation recognizes and honors 10 distinguished teachers across 5 Chicago area counties.
The symbiotic relationship of individual and community, of teacher and student, and of teacher and administrator guides professional journey. Harold’s own professional journey encompassed formative years in a small-town setting, Fort Smith, Arkansas, where community values dominated the daily lives of the black residents. Harold’s subsequent acclimation to the urban setting of 1950’s Chicago after moving there while a young student, provided valuable participatory information regarding public policy and the governance of public schooling.
New vistas of understanding the political economy of public schooling expanded for Harold as a young Chicago teacher, beginning in 1966. “None but ourselves can free our minds” (Robert Nesta Marley) perhaps best exemplified the relationship between Harold and his public school students over the next 20 years. Self-reliance in concert with the needs of the community/classroom established the parameters of Harold’s pedagogical relationship with his students.
The social justice principals of honoring process in human relationships and the recognition that the good of the community has positive implications for the good of the individual just as the good of the individual has positive implications for the good of the community, provided guidance for Harold’s next steps. Over the next 16 or so years, beginning about 1984, Harold served the Chicago public schools in the capacity of high school biology teacher, city-wide elementary school mathematics coordinator, grant writer, and program coordinator. It was during these years that Harold began teaching in the graduate departments of National-Louis University, where he is currently working.
Although Harold has been employed for more than 40 years in one capacity or another as a professional educator, he feels that his work is not yet finished. New challenges await…
“If you want to predict the future, create it.” ~Peter Drucker
Elva Z. Posey
Elva Z. Posey, formerly a Nurse Administrator for Chicago Public Schools for forty years, has been a key supporter and advocate for Rald Institute since its inception. Elva helps parents identify appropriate college programs and helps with fund raising activities for the Institute.
Joan M. Sassano
Joan M. Sassano is a long-time supporter of Rald Institute. Currently, she helps with fund-raising and provides transitional/vocational services to some of Rald's adolescents. Joan earned a B.A. from the University of Western Ontario, Canada, M.ED of Counseling and Guidance from Loyola University, Chicago, and is the Director of Joan Marie's School of Modeling. She is also Director for Chicago Model Search, City-wide Specialist with CPS for Children with Special Needs , Consultant and Teacher in After School Programs (CPS) High School and Elementary Schools -working with Regular and Special Education Children, and Catechist for SPRED (Special Education For Children And Adults With Special Needs) - Archdiocese of Chicago.
Bernard (Bernie) Richard
Bernard (Bernie) Richard (pronounced, "Ree-shard" because the name is French Canadian), is a bilingual (Spanish) Licensed Clinical Social Worker. He is recently retired from the Chicago Family Health Center in South Chicago, where he has focused on providing behavioral and mental health counseling to a population, including a significant immigration population. This experience has identified, among other things, the pervasive presence of low self-esteem, poor anger management and poor communication within family systems, both between the adults and the children within the family system. Richard refers to this condition as "the invisible stressors which cause much pain that is reflected physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually" in all family members.
As a result of his over twenty five years of experience in hospitals, clinics and residential settings, Richard has started to create a teaching program entitled, Creatures of Habit/People of Change. This program explores the world of habit formation and change from a physical, mental, emotional and spiritual perspective. In a recent conversation with Beverly Normand, Richard stated: "Many of us believe that a person only attends counseling if he or she has a mental illness or some kind of disability, but couseling can help us cope with daily stress and anger as well as improve our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health." This why Richard's teaching program includes a strong emphasis on learning and using techniques designed to improve one's physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health. The invisible stressors of poor anger management and poor ego management always present themselves as worthy targets. Techniques learned in fifteen years of martial arts study and practice are tailor-made to address these two formidable foes. A third degree black belt, Richard said..."The more I learn, the more I see I need to learn. Yoga and martial arts are excellent healing tools."
Richard continues to volunteer and consult one day a week at Centro Comunitario Juan Diego (Juan Diego Community Center) in South Chicago. He is a Volunteer in the University of Chicago Hospital System as a Minister of Care through his parish church, St.Thomas the Apostle Church in Hyde Park. "Now that I have more control over the daily time in my life, this is one way of giving back within my community of faith", Richard states.
Bernie has been a supporter of Rald Institute for many years, and loves to provide in-kind services for children and families.
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