The Center for Language Learning & Leadership is an organization that provides consultations and workshops on the latest research, innovations and practices on the interrelationships of the brain to language, learning and the arts. This consultancy also provides training that assists organizations in developing effective leadership that promotes strategic planning and ethical practices.
The Center staff provides excellent, innovative, and personable consultations and workshops to assist clients in understanding brain to learning connections.
Dancy Associates, a consultancy on spirituality, aging and caregiving, is an extension of CL3. The center promotes civic engagement, as well as training in ethical leadership and strategic planning.
THE CENTER FOR LANGUAGE, LEARNING AND LEADERSHIP SERVES THE FOLLOWING TYPES OF ORGANIZATIONS AND GROUPS:
PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICTS, CHARTER SCHOOLS, and PRIVATE SCHOOLS that want to increase their staff's knowledge of learning and brain connections
FOUNDATIONS that fund research of the brain and learning sciences
COMMUNITY-BASED NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS that seek to strengthen evidence-based research practices from the brain sciences
"We want our clients to:
Experience excellence with up-to-date knowledge and information.
Feel a connection that the service delivery is personable and tailored to the client’s needs.
Rely on the Center for Language, Learning and Leadership first for language, learning and brain sciences information and training."
— M. Lorraine Wynn-Dancy, Ph.D, CCC-SLP
Dr. M. Lorraine Wynn-Dancy, principal consultant, is a native of Greensboro, North Carolina. She has a Master’s degree in Speech and Hearing Sciences from Michigan State University in East Lansing, and a second Master’s degree in Linguistics from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She was the recipient of a Leadership Fellowship for doctoral studies at the University of Texas at Austin where she earned her doctorate degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders. Her doctoral dissertation focused on the activation of prior knowledge, language processing and memory functions in adolescents with language-learning disabilities.
Dr. Wynn-Dancy, a certified speech – language pathologist whose work experiences include public health and public school settings, has special research interests in brain, language and learning connections, as well as memory processes and metacognition, particularly in children and young adults with language-learning disabilities. She is a life member of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association where she has served on the Clinical Certification Board, the Media Awards Committee, and a Reviewer for the Language, Speech and Hearing Services in Schools Journal.
In addition to her clinical experiences in speech – language pathology, Dr. Wynn-Dancy has spent most of her career in higher education. She has held faculty appointments at Hampton University, Gallaudet College and the University of Maryland at College Park. For ten years she served as Program Director for Speech – Language Pathology and Audiology at Norfolk State University. More recently, Dr. Wynn-Dancy has also been Visiting Associate Professor in the Department of Audiology and Speech Sciences at her alma mater, Michigan State University. She has held adjunct faculty appointments in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and in the Department of Pediatrics at Eastern Virginia Medical School. Through the Center for Language, Learning and Leadership, she serves as a consultant for language and learning, particularly on issues related to the brain and language processing.
Dr. Wynn-Dancy continues to promote literacy, especially through the arts. Dr. Wynn-Dancy, a founding member of the Board of Directors for Friendship Day School, served as Board Secretary from August, 2017 to June 30, 2023. Friendship Day School for the Sciences and the Arts is a private school in Charlotte’s northwest corridor that emphasizes rigorous academics coupled with strong parental involvement. Dr. Wynn-Dancy currently serves as chair of the Friendship Day School’s Arts Advisory Council, and has been instrumental in initiating several innovative projects, including “The Intersection of Art and Science” where scholars are introduced to selected vocabulary, as well as the engineering and physics of sound for selected musical instruments.”
Her published articles include "Accessing Long-Term Memory:Metacognitive Strategies and Strategic Action in Adolescents" (co-authored with Dr. Ronald Gillam), and published in the journal, Topics in Language Disorders. In April, 2019 Dr. Wynn-Dancy gave the invited Ronald Williams Lecture at NBASLH, a national professional organization for speech-language pathologists and audiologists. Her topic was Literacy Through the Arts: Utilizing the Lens of Brain Science.
Dr. Wynn-Dancy has been particularly effective in utilizing her knowledge of language, learning and brain processes to initiate other innovative community partnerships. In Fall, 2005 while residing in Norfolk, Virginia, she was instrumental in leading a community service organization in forging a significant partnership with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra and the Norfolk, Virginia Public Schools to create the program called “Delta Arts in the Schools”. For several elementary and middle schools that serve families with limited economic resources, this program provides youth opportunities for exposure to professional artists and symphonic instruments through concerts and master classes coupled with language arts activities (reading, spelling, vocabulary development, writing and conversational activities). This program is based on research that youth who seriously study musical instruments develop better concentration skills and have better academic outcomes. The Norfolk, VA program has continued for nineteen years and it is on-going.
The primary purpose of CL3 is to provide information, workshops and seminars on the most recent research on how the brain processes language and the relationship of the brain to learning. We also offer training on ethical leadership and strategic planning.
Trainings
Consulting
For our Leadership services, see Dancy Associates.