Karen Micciche

Karen Micciche has been serving as Literacy Nassau's Executive Director since 2010.  During her tenure, she has revamped the core mission and programming to create inclusion for all Long Islanders at the lowest levels of literacy, including children.  She introduced the Orton-Gillingham methodology to our tutor-student population in 2016 and built our donation-based tutoring center from the ground up in 2018.  Karen is a lifelong lover of words, the only child of a dyslexic mother who has dedicated her adult life to making sure that everyone within her reach has access to the tools needed to become a confident reader.  She is currently studying to become a Fellow of the Orton-Gillingham Academy and looks forward to revitalizing teacher training across the island in the years to come.  In her free time, Karen writes novels under the pen name KJ Micciche. Her debut novel, The Yearbook, will be released from Sourcebooks in May 2023.

Kate Quijano

       Kate Quijano is the Senior Program Director at Literacy Nassau and an associate of the Orton-Gillingham Academy. For our adult programs, she trains volunteers, registers and assesses students, and coordinates/schedules classes for our English Language Learner and Basic Literacy programs. For our children’s programs, she conducts intake interviews and assessments and matches students with OG tutors. Kate also provides OG instruction for several students herself.

          Kate has a Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education and a Master’s Degree in Literacy Education. She has worked in the education field for the past 19 years as an elementary school teacher, a literacy specialist, and an adjunct professor.  Kate lives with her husband, two dogs, two ferrets, six chickens, and approximately 30 fish. In her free time, she likes to read, kayak, crochet, and visit the dog park.

Anne-Marie Poliviou

Anne-Marie has been Karen's Executive Assistant at Literacy Nassau since July 2017. She started at the charming colonial in Freeport and helped move the team over to the current offices in Wantagh. This role allows her to wear many hats and she enjoys managing the daily challenges. It is wonderful to be part of Literacy Nassau's growth and expansion of programs for helping others. 

Melissa Sansobrino

Melissa Sansobrino is a full-time Orton-Gillingham tutor for Literacy Nassau. Her path to becoming an OG tutor was a little different than most! Her original career was as a research scientist (having a PhD in biology and working in labs before her children were born), but she became interested in the Orton-Gillingham approach when her daughter was diagnosed with dyslexia in 2018. The explicit and systematic approach of OG was something that worked well for her daughter and made sense to her as a scientist. She was trained through Literacy Nassau’s OG Training Program during the 2019-2020 academic year, became certified as an Associate of the OG Academy in the Fall of 2020, and has been working with students since then. Her work as an OG tutor has been the most rewarding professional experience of her life. It is an honor to be able to help children grow as readers!

She is local to Literacy Nassau, as she lives in North Bellmore with her husband and two children. In her free time she enjoys having Movie Nights and Game Nights with her family, reading good books, gardening, and cooking!

Jessica D'Aprile

Jessica D'Aprile works at Literacy Nassau as a Program Assistant. Starting in 2019 as an AmeriCorps VISTA, Jessica was then hired on to the staff in 2020 as her VISTA term ended. Since she started, Jessica has enjoyed working in many different areas of the organization, including fundraising and data entry. Seeing the different programs and all that they do to give back to the community has been one of the many highlights of her time working here. She hopes to continue her education in Clinical Psychology and utilize it in the non-profit world, specifically in the areas of homelessness and the penitentiary system. In the meantime, she looks forward to continuing to work for Literacy Nassau and being able to take part in helping it grow. 

Renae Katz

Renae Katz working role at Literacy Nassau is the bookkeeper.  She has worked for many companies over the years handling the books.  She has been part of the Literacy Nassau team since 2014.  Working at Literacy Nassau she has watched the growth of the organization over the years. To not only help adults with literacy classes.  It now operates a tutoring center for children with dyslexia. She will happily continue and be a part of the Literacy Nassau organization that strives to help others.

Kaitlyn Beleckas

Kaitlyn Beleckas is a full time Orton-Gillingham tutor at Literacy Nassau.  Kaitlyn was trained through Literacy Nassau in 2021-2022 and became an Associate Level Practitioner through the Orton-Gillingham Academy in the summer of 2022.  She has a bachelor’s degree in Sociology and Elementary Education and a master’s degree in Liberal Studies.  She became interested in Orton-Gillingham when her daughter was diagnosed with dyslexia in 2017.  She witnessed firsthand with her own daughter the difference that good reading instruction can make in the life of a child.  Kaitlyn lives in Massapequa with her husband and two children.  In her free time, she enjoys relaxing at the beach, baking, and playing with her two Shih-Tzu puppies.