Abilities Center Staff: Educational Team

Madalyn Pudavick graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in special education. Her concentration was on emotionally impaired children in grades K-12 and general education for grades K-5. She spent 10 years in a self-contained Emotionally Impaired classroom, before having 2 daughters of her own. She later became a Resource Room teacher for Waterford Public Schools, specializing in children with learning disabilities, as well as autistic children and children with ADD/ADHD. She has been the teacher-trainer for “Leaders and Readers” for the past 10 years and has coordinated and trained all facilitators for classroom interventions. In addition, she has personally serviced all certified children, as well as the most at-risk of the general education population. Mady is excited to have the opportunity to work with children and their parents one-on-one at the Abilities Center and to be part of the multi-disciplinary team.

Mary holds a BME in music education from CMU and a Masters in music education from WMU. For 22 years, Mary taught music to thousands of students, kindergarten through 12th grade, in 4 public school districts. Additionally, Mary provided adjunct instruction at Hope College in the areas of music literature and teaching methods. More recently, Mary has focused her work on the young child and reaching children with special needs through music. Eight years ago, Mary began teaching Kindermusik, an educational system designed specifically for children ages birth to seven. Through her work with Kindermusik, Mary has integrated language, movement and music to create a unique and effective approach to early childhood instruction. Mary and her husband are parents to two children, ages 7 and 9.

Lisa Fenberg graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in special education. She is certified to teach special education K-12 as well as general education K-5. After college, she spent five years in Portland, Oregon as the Resource Room teacher in an elementary school. She worked with students with a variety of challenges including learning disabilities, speech/language impairments, Down Syndrome, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Attention Deficit Disorder (and/or Hyperactivity) and emotional impairments. Lisa received her Master of Science in special education from Portland State University. After Portland, she moved to Raleigh, North Carolina where she worked at a private school for students with learning disabilities. There she taught elementary and middle school students reading, writing, math, social studies, science and study skills. She taught in NC for two years before moving back home to Michigan. Lisa and her husband have a 10 month old son as well as two fabulous dogs. Lisa looks forward to working with the children and their parents at the Abilities Center.