Debbie Cohee-Wright

One of two remaining founding members of Radcliffe Creek School, Ms. Cohee-Wright has helped shape the trajectory of an entire generation of learners. After 20 years of teaching and tutoring children with dyslexia and special needs, Ms. Cohee-Wright joined our founder, Ms. Molly Judge, in opening Radcliffe Creek School in the fall of 1996. Now, 26 years later, Ms. Cohee-Wright has continued her and Ms. Judge’s mission in creating a safe, accepting, dynamic environment that fosters and facilitates a culture of learning for those who have struggled in traditional environments.

Today, Ms. Cohee-Wright is a part-time specialist with a full-time impact. While she handles a great deal of our testing, she is also an integral member of our admissions committee. Her unprecedented and unparalleled insight help us properly evaluate prospective students, their strengths, and areas of greatest need. When a student is accepted into Radcliffe Creek School, Ms. Cohee-Wright also helps identify the perfect course schedule for the respective student.

“Even though I can’t tell you the formula of our success, I can tell you it endures to this day, twenty-six years later,” Ms. Cohee-Wright reflected. “Kids feel emotionally safe. Parents are relaxed because they aren’t battling schools anymore to make things right for their kids. We regularly hear parents tell us, after a few weeks of their children being at Radcliffe, that they ‘have (their) kid back.’ I can’t tell you how good that feels.”

Ms. Cohee-Wright has been — and continues to be — a critical component in that formula of success. However, what makes Ms. Cohee-Wright so special, such a beacon of light in the vast sea of specialized education, is her willingness to pass along the lessons she’s learned to anyone eager to learn alongside her.

Like any service field, mentorship helps educators exponentially evolve and grow. Finding a mentor that’s as eager to learn as they are to teach, is one of the biggest blessings one can have in the workplace. For Ms. Cohee-Wright, that mentor was the late Dr. Fran Bowman, a legendary educator and one of the chief architects of the Orton-Gillingham approach.

Now, Ms. Cohee-Wright, a long-time mentee of Dr. Bowman, finds herself as the mentor to a new generation of educators. While some may find such a task daunting, Ms. Cohee-Wright tackles it with grace and grit. After changing the lives of an entire generation of learners, she’s now doing the same with a generation of educators.


When you love what you do, the urge to continue in your mission remains steadfast and ever-present. Ms. Cohee-Wright adores education and helping our institution evolve. We’re a better school, a better staff, and a better community thanks to her unwavering, earnest and relentlessly compassionate effort.