CDL's Professional Staff

Each member of CDL's professional staff brings extensive experience and expertise to the organization, from training in neurodevelopmental differences that underlie learning and behavior to expertise in staff development.

Professional, Program and Administrative Staff

Alice P. Thomas
President and CEO

Glenda Thorne, Ph.D.
Vice President of Clinical Services

Julie McCarble
Vice President of Program Administration

Eboni Brown
Program Assistant

Elizabeth L. Grace, CFRE
Development Director

Denise Howell
Senior Program Assistant

Candy Lawson, Ph.D.
Clinical Psychologist

Kissee Matthews
Program Assistant

Severina Nicholl-DeSpenza
Learning Specialist

Cindy W. Phillips
Accountant and Business Manager

Lauren Richardson
Creative Services

Tammy Robicheaux
Program Director

Shelli Wilcox
Clinical and Administrative Assistant

ALICE THOMAS is the founder, president and CEO of the Center for Development and Learning (CDL). A career educator for 30+ years, Alice has been a teacher, counselor, and intervention specialist in inner city, suburban and rural public schools in Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana. She has delivered hundreds of seminars on learning and teaching to public, parochial and private school administrators, teachers and parents.

Alice is the lead creator of the Learning Connections school wide improvement initiative, the PLAIN TALK educational summit, the SmartArt© service learning program and the Professional Development Academy for the New Orleans Public Schools. She is lead author of the Learning Connections Training Book and MINDWORKS! ...and how Mine Works, a book for middle, junior high and high school students about learning and thinking. Additionally, Alice is the author of numerous articles on teaching and learning and is editor of the 1994, 1996, 1999 and 2002 PLAIN TALK summit proceedings and CDL's Quarterly newsletter.

Alice holds a Master's degree from Louisiana State University. In 1990 she completed a fellowship at the Clinical Center for the Study of Development and Learning at the University of North Carolina Medical School, Chapel Hill under Melvin Levine, M.D. She recently commenced doctoral studies in change leadership at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto.

Alice has always been an active volunteer in many community nonprofit organizations, serving several as president. She currently serves on the Staff Development Leadership Council of Louisiana, the Advisory Board of the Center for Educational Research on Dyslexia at San Jose State University, CA, and the Hallowell Center for Cognitive and Emotional Health in Cambridge, MA.

GLENDA THORNE, PH.D. is the Vice-President of Clinical Services of CDL. She holds a doctoral degree in psychology from Louisiana State University, and in 1991 completed a mini-fellowship at the Clinical Center for the Study of Development and Learning at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She has also completed training in Language Essential for Teachers of Reading and Spelling by Louisa C. Moats, Ed.D. She is a licensed psychologist in the State of Louisiana, specializing in learning disorders and attention deficits and related social and emotional problems. She is the Co-creator of the Learning Connections school-wide improvement program. Dr. Thorne is the lead author of the Behavioral, Academic, and Neurodevelopmental Survey (BANDS), a clinical descriptive data gathering system for teachers, parents and students. She is co-author of MINDWORKS! ...and how Mine Works, a book written for middle, junior high and high school students about learning and thinking. She has made numerous presentations at professional conferences and has written chapters on memory, language, attention and handwriting skills for the PLAIN TALK summit proceedings. She also writes articles for CDL's quarterly newsletter. She has conducted many professional continuing education workshops on the assessment and treatment of reading and other language disorders, the assessment and treatment of Attention-Deficit Disorders, and the assessment and treatment of neurodevelopment processes that are associated with school performance. Dr. Thorne has taught in the Department of Psychology at Southeastern Louisiana University as a Visiting Assistant Professor. She has also served as adjunct faculty at Southeastern Louisiana University in the Departments of Psychology and Education and at the University of New Orleans in the College of Education. She has been employed by the public school system, where she served as a member of a multidisciplinary team and conducted student evaluations, teacher and parent consultations, and teacher inservices. Married for 37 years, Glenda and her husband Marvin are the parents of two adults and have two grandchildren.

JULIE MCCARBLE is Vice-President of Program Administration at the Center for Development and Learning (CDL). She brings almost two decades of technical training, and business and project management experience to CDL’s operations and programming. Julie has worked with numerous professionals, corporations and individuals providing financial, technical, operational, fundraising and marketing instruction and consultative support. In 2004, she developed and delivered technical training in data entry and data management for the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Reading Skills (DIBELS) to New Orleans Public Schools literacy facilitators. Julie is co-author of the Right From Birth Parenting Series training manual based on the book, Right From Birth: Building Your Child’s Foundation for Life written by Craig and Sharon Ramey. Julie has delivered industry specific and other software training to numerous corporate entities and has delivered licensing training for the State of Louisiana. Julie’s background includes extensive Consultative and Program Management for corporate, government and private organizations. Corporate and trade organizations have used Julie’s expertise in meeting and large-scale event planning throughout the United States and internationally. With a passion for supporting every child to achieve, she has actively served in leadership roles of several community-based organizations. Julie has studied at Tulane University and Embry Riddle Aeronautical University and has recently commenced studies at the University of New Orleans in Nonprofit Management.

CANDY LAWSON, PH.D. is a Clinical Psychologist at CDL. She holds a doctoral degree in psychology from Louisiana State University and is licensed to practice in the state of Louisiana. In her position as a clinical psychologist at CDL, Dr. Lawson provides direct services in our clinic, including evaluations, consultations, and individual and family therapy to children, adolescents and adults with learning problems. Before joining the staff at CDL in 1997, Dr. Lawson was in private practice for ten years, where she worked with a diversity of clients including children, adolescents, adults, and the elderly in both inpatient and outpatient settings. She has extensive clinical experience in the evaluation of intellectual, academic, social, emotional and behavioral skills, and has provided individual and group therapy for a broad spectrum of social, emotional and behavioral problems. At CDL, Dr. Lawson has co-authored the Behavioral, Academic and Neurodevelopmental Survey (BANDS), a descriptive assessment instrument used in our evaluations to obtain comprehensive information from parents, students and teachers about a student's strengths and weaknesses. She is also a co-author of MINDWORKS! ...and how Mine Works, a book written to help middle through high school students understand how their brain works and how to improve their thinking and learning. Dr. Lawson has also written articles on clinical topics for CDL's monthly newsletter PlainTalk.

TAMMY ROBICHEAUX is Program Director at CDL through contract with the University of Louisiana - Lafayette. Tammy has 17 years of proven success in building strong instructional programs by developing innovative solutions, enhancing resources, engaging participants and customizing instruction for classrooms, administrators, and districts. She has facilitated professional development trainings with K-12 schools, universities, regional groups and at state and national conferences. In the role of Louisiana Systemic Initiatives Program Site Coordinator she has worked directly with 22 school districts and 200+ schools throughout the state of Louisiana. Most recently, as the Director of Elementary Curriculum, Tammy has taken a lead role in the operation of schools in the Recovery School District and has previously assisted schools in achieving outstanding growth as measured by Louisiana Department of Education Accountability System through the Distinguished Educator Program. In a two and four year period, the performance score for the two schools where she was assigned grew by 30.2% and 57.7%. This success can be attributed to her ability to build consensus, communicate vision, organize change and continuously focus on improvement. These qualities, as well as her facilitation and data management skills, led to her selection as a project leader and spokesperson for analytical and cumulative reports to the State Board of Education for this six million dollar program.

Interested in joining the CDL professional staff? View employment opportunities.