Meet the Team
Kim Wood – Special Education Advocate & Consultant
Kim Wood is a special education advocate and tutor for children with disabilities. Having endured the special education system as a child labeled with dyslexia, she had to learn how to advocate for herself and her needs throughout her high school and college career.
Her self-advocacy helped pave the way for receiving a B.A. in Theater Arts from George Mason University and later a M.A.T in Non-Categorical Special Education from Trinity University. She also holds a teaching license in Virginia for LD, ED, and ID.
After obtaining her degree, Kim was hired by a school in Prince William County to promote inclusion within the school and later became the Department head at a Prince William County Middle School.
In 2006, Kim left the school system to homeschool her daughter and entered the private sector, founding Unique Steps. Using the Orton-Gillingham method and other various approaches, she teaches children to read and write as well as engendering a sense of self-advocacy.
As a person with dyslexia, she makes personal connections with her students, understanding the academic and everyday challenges they face, which allows her to form a more well-rounded protocol for each child. Her approach examines every aspect of the child beyond the disability.
At Unique Steps, children grow in academic integrity and receive appropriate accommodations from the schools they attend. Kim’s personal journey is an illustration that there are many paths to success, taken with one’s own unique steps.
Grace Wood – High School Tutor
Grace Wood (Kim’s daughter) is a high school tutor for writing and foreign languages. A recent graduate of George Mason University, Grace uses her BFA in Creative Writing and three years of experience as a Writing Center Consultant to help students navigate their writing journey.
Whether it be academic essays, resumes, or personal works of fiction, Grace is a helpful presence from brainstorming to final revisions. Taking each student as an individual, she works with students’ personal styles and specific writing needs to build their confidence in their work, academic or otherwise.
With her BA in Foreign Languages, Grace also helps her students cultivate an understanding of the Spanish language. Using her decade long study of the language and six-month stay in Spain, she works with students on grammar, reading, writing, listening, and speaking so that they can not only understand but enjoy their study of the language in the classroom and out on the street.
As a writer and language lover, it is Grace’s desire at Unique Steps to take her students where they are and help them become all they wish to be in their writing and language journey.