Marcia Shearer

Director of Academics and Operations

Marcia Shearer brings more than 20 years of experience in creating educational solutions for students of all ages, gifts and abilities.

Marcia earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and then attended graduate school for the coursework that would allow her to earn a teaching certificate. She taught in the Florida public schools, serving as a department head. She later homeschooled her own children. Prior to joining Sylvan Learning Marcia was an administrator at an Atlanta area independent school. She has been with Sylvan since early 2009.

Madeenah Dawson

Program Manager, Instructor & Diagnostician

Ms. Madeenah has been with Sylvan since 2007 and has lived in Roswell since 2005. She earned her B.A. in History and her M.Ed. in School Counseling. She is currently working on her Phd. in Educational Psychology. Her favorite subjects to teach at Sylvan are writing, reading and test prep. She and her husband love to cook.

Susie Hill

Program Manager, Instructor & Diagnostician

Ms. Susie has been with Sylvan since April of 2010. She is a native of Atlanta and graduated from The Lovett School. She has her B.A. in Elementary Ed. and her M.Ed. in Reading Education. Her favorite subject to teach is reading, either beginning, academic or advanced. She is also a college football fanatic, especially Clemson.

Jacinta Reeder

Program Manager, Instructor & Diagnostician

Ms. Jacinta has been with Sylvan since 2008 and tutoring since 2003. She has worked at 5 different Sylvan centers in the metro area. She is a native Atlantan and came right back to the area after going to college in Pennsylvania. She holds a B.S. in Mathematics. She loves seeing that ah-ha moment and making students excited about their work. Math and Spanish are her favorite subjects to teach.

Rod Brooks

Instructor & Teacher's Assistant

Mr. Rod has been with Sylvan since February 2012 and is a transplant from northern New Jersey. Rod has a B.A. in History from Rutgers University and a M.A. in Teaching Social Sciences from Western Governors University. He is a GA certified teacher in Social Studies, Science, and Early Childhood education. Also he has taught Social Studies on the high school level at a public school system here in Georgia, a G.E.D. program in N.Y.C., and has several years of experience since high school in tutoring in all subjects with local Y.M.C.A’s in New Jersey.

Bekah Richards

Instructor & Teacher's Assistant

Bekah Richards grew up in Snellville and graduated in 2006 from South Gwinnett, where she played varsity basketball and soccer. In 2010 she graduated magna cum laude from Brandeis University with degrees in English, Creative Writing and International Studies. She has previously taught SAT and LSAT classes for Kaplan, worked as a Brandeis writing tutor and taught for the Institute of Reading Development. Richards also enjoys writing and has published articles on LIVESTRONG.com and TypeF.com and in the Atlanta-Journal Constitution and Brandeis University Law Journal.

Darrell Thompson

Instructor & Diagnostician

Mr. Darrell has been with Sylvan over 5 years. His first Sylvan experience was as a student in the Toco Hills center when he was in middle school. He has a full time job now outside of Sylvan but enjoys working with the students so much that he is teaching almost every Saturday.

Jim Murphy

Instructor

Mr. Jim has been with us since 2007 and is our center's longest standing teacher. He has been working with students for over 30 years. He has a B.S. in Finance and a M.Ed. in Mathematics. He primarily teaches math essentials, advanced math, academic reading, and SAT/ACT prep.

Joyce Banks

Instructor, Teacher's Assistant & Diagnostician

Hayley Shanteanu

Instructor & Teachers Assistant

Heather Skelton

Instructor

Britiany Merriweather

Instructor