I’m Christie Ranslow,

founder of the Hayden Literacy Center, a place built from heartbreak and hope.

My story began long before I ever stepped into a classroom. Both of my parents were illiterate, and I watched them struggle to raise a family without the power that reading and writing can bring. My mother once tried to read to me, broke down crying, and threw the book across the room. I’ll never forget that moment. I promised myself then that I would someday become a teacher and help people like her find their voice through literacy.

That promise has guided me for nearly five decades. Since 1977, I’ve taught in public, private, and homeschool settings. I’ve been a classroom teacher, a Title I reading specialist, a literacy coach, and a university supervisor for prospective reading teachers. But the heart of my work, which still inspires me daily, is teaching individual students to read and watching their entire world open up.

My journey to founding the Hayden Literacy Center began with a boy named Hayden, a red-haired, freckled child with severe dyslexia. When I met him, he couldn’t even spell his own name. We went back to the very beginning, learning sounds, letters, and patterns, and step by step, he began to read. Years later, he graduated from high school with honors. This center bears his name because he reminded me why I can never stop doing this work.

Every child I meet represents another chance to honor my mother’s memory and to prove that no one is “stupid.” They are capable, bright, and full of potential; they need the right kind of instruction and someone who believes in them. My approach is grounded in the Orton-Gillingham method, a multisensory, structured, and individualized system proven to rewire the brain for reading success. I don’t diagnose dyslexia; I find out where a student is stuck, and then we unstick them together.

I’ve seen transformations that parents once thought were impossible. One mother wrote, “Christie has literally saved my son Hayden’s life. He went from drawing lines on a page to reading at a fifth-grade level in under three years.” Another shared, “My son started third grade at a 2.0 reading level and now reads at a strong 3.5. He actually picks up books for fun. That never happened before.”

Stories like these remind me that literacy changes more than grades. It changes futures. My goal has always been simple: to make specialized, research-based instruction affordable and accessible for families who can’t find help elsewhere. Because when a child learns to read, a whole family, and sometimes an entire generation, finds hope.