Linnea Smith, the President of North Coast Education Services, is a creative problem-solver by nature. She excels at seeing the big picture and tailoring unique solutions to each challenge. Her ability to gather input from her team and community ensures the best possible outcomes for the clients. Linnea's early career at North Coast and CEI, and her decade-long work behind the scenes on the NCES Board, provided her with a solid foundation. Her return to the North Coast full-time, following 16 years in administration and development in the Broadway Theatre Industry, brings a wealth of experience and a fresh perspective.
Linnea and her team carefully match the tutor qualifications with each student’s unique needs for maximum academic success. She coordinates services for families and students needing academic support, gifted needs, and advanced placement support. She is sensitive to the highly specialized tutoring needs of students with Individualized Education Plans (IEPs). Life-long exposure to different learning styles has enabled Linnea to see the distinctive needs of each student. She finds fulfillment in helping families find the best solutions to their educational needs.
Being a nurturer for the students and her team, Linnea is calm and non-judgmental. She encourages team collaboration, allowing team members to make recommendations and decisions. “I am not intimidated by other’s intellect or success. I believe in cooperation and collaboration for the ultimate success and satisfaction in my organization and the greater community,” says Linnea. “I believe in cooperative “competitivism.” The more we learn and grow collectively; the greater the opportunities become for all. The skills of learning to think, problem solve, analyze, and communicate have enabled me to find success, regardless of the industry in which I work. Another important quality is being willing to admit the unknown and not allowing it to hinder success.”
Linnea’s psychology degree has helped her navigate various personalities in her personal and professional life. It has also enabled her to understand diverse types of brain processing and neural pathways to identify creative learning solutions for clients and to support educators. Being a traveler has also contributed to Linnea’s ability to understand people and places, which has resulted in a greater appreciation and sensitivity to diverse cultures and tolerance of different perspectives.
For Linnea, being a leader comes naturally; she feels like she has been training for it her whole life. As a young child, she worked as a clerical assistant, doing filing and mass mailing tasks. As a pre-teen, she correlated research with a study of the reading program. As a teen, Linnea strategized and problem-solved staffing and student challenges over the dinner table. As a young adult, she spent a summer doing bookkeeping and another conducting a nationwide research study to open a non-traditional high school.
She and her husband also ran an adult education program in New York City for five years. During her years working in the Broadway Theatre industry, she enhanced her business understanding in many areas, including legal contracts, business plans, finance, and business management. “All these acquired skills helped me to transition easily to my role as a private education administrator and business owner,” adds Linnea, who, with her unique mindset, has been taking the organization to new heights.
North Coast Education Services believes every learner, child, or adult learns differently. Their objective is to present material in a form compatible with each learner's learning style, skills, and abilities. They build on small learning successes to grow self-confidence and self-esteem and respect each client as an individual, customizing their recommendations to fit their needs. The team at North Coast speaks with each client directly to learn about the individual student, and then they hand-select the tutor to work with the student based on their unique profiles. In a world of emerging AI (Artificial Intelligence), North Coast continues to use human touch techniques for each student.
North Coast Education Services provides educational services to individuals, public and private schools, and students eligible for the Ohio Autism and Jon Peterson Special Needs Scholarship programs. Linnea envisions opening a private high school (and possibly a middle school) for students with learning differences, which adheres to her approach to working with each unique student.
For over 30 years, North Coast has been at the forefront of teaching reading skills with research-based methodologies. An updated version of this curriculum called Richards Learning Systems, Sammy, and the Magical Reading Chest was launched in 2021.
Carole Richards wrote and produced a series of 77 5-minute video lessons with puppets, animation, and children. In this new delivery model, students learn to read, and teachers/parents are simultaneously trained in multi-sensory systematic phonics. This program is designed to be fun, engaging, user-friendly, and cost-effective for individuals and schools. A 3-year research study will be published in the coming months. “If the program proves to be as successful as we believe it can be, we will leverage the research to bring this program to additional public and private classrooms to benefit our nation's children and beyond.
In the coming days, Linnea wants to concentrate on enhancing education, quality service, and access to special education services for students in Ohio. She and her team are working towards improving nationwide literacy skills by reaching students and adults with our reading program, Sammy and the Magical Reading Chest. We cannot grow as a country while our citizens lack the basic skills to fully participate in society,” concludes Linnea.