Insight

Remember
When • • •

Enterprising Educator

Lynne Master takes a leadership role
in changing education.

T

DIANA LIEBERMAN
Staff Writer

hirty years ago, Lynne Master left the classroom
to start her own business — and she's never
looked back.
Master is the founder, owner and director of the
Learning Disabilities Clinic, with sites in Oak Park and
Bloomfield Hills. Each year, the clinic's 40 teachers test and
tutor hundreds of children and adults with learning disabilities
ranging from attention deficit disorder to closed-head injuries.
"It's not unusual for me to have a lifetime relationship
with people," says Master, a Huntington Woods resident.
"People come home from university and make an appoint-
ment or two. I'm starting to get the children of children I
worked with years ago."
In July, Master, 60, became president of the Association
of Education Practitioners and Providers (AEPP), a trade
association serving the education industry.
At the same time, the Learning Disabilities Clinic became
Michigan's first private testing and tutoring clinic for special
needs students to receive state accreditation from the North
Central Association Commission on Schools (NCACS). This
will allow students to transfer credit for courses taken at the
clinic to public high schools, and possibly to colleges as well.
"She's an inspiring role model," says Anita Naftaly, director
of special education at the Agency for Jewish Education, who
worked with Master for about eight years at the Oak Park
clinic. "She is absolutely passionate about helping her stu-
dents."
Among these students was a young man with Down's syn-
drome, whom the clinic helped learn to read and understand
the materials needed to earn his driver's license.
"It's a rite of passage," says Master. "He was never actually
going to drive, but he was so proud to be able to pull this
card out of his pocket."
A past president of the Birmingham Temple, Master is on
the boards of the American Arab and Jewish Friends, Gibson
School for the Gifted in Redford and CH.A.D.D. (Children
and Adults with Attention Deficit Disorder). She serves as an
expert witness in circuit and probate courts, and as a consult-
ant for many schools and community and professional groups.
At age 52, she was widowed when her husband suffered a
heart attack while on vacation. She then raised their six chil-
dren as a single parent.

Career Twist

Master's personality — a mix of professionalism, enthusiasm
and an overriding desire to help others — drives her success as

a special education profes-
sional and entrepreneur.
Were it not for a change
in state certification
requirements, she might
have found her career tak-
ing a different turn.
Master had taught for
nine years in the
Highland Park Schools.
The school district had
many innovative pro-
grams, she says, and she
had not thought of leav-
ing. Then, in the mid-
1960s, the state mandat-
ed that all special educa-
tion teachers must have
master's degrees.
It was while studying at
Lynne Master
Wayne State University
that Master was encour-
aged to set off on her own. "My esteemed professor, Walter
Ambinder, said to me, 'Why don't you leave your job and
I'll refer people to you?'"
Also referring patients to Master was Dr. Joseph
Fischhoff of Southfield, the retired chief of child psychiatry
at Children's Hospital in Detroit.
"We were on the board at the Child's Guidance Clinic in
Detroit," says Dr. Fischhoff. "I'd see a lot of children and
many had learning disabilities."
As president of the AEPP, Master leads an association
that promotes professionalism among individuals and
groups related to the education industry. These include
publishers and manufacturers of educational software, toys
and games, educational testing companies, charter schools,
and tutoring companies, such as Learning Disabilities
Clinics.
"The association handles everything from kitchen table
tutors to publicly traded education companies," Master
says.
In May, the AEPP will hold a "Wingspread Conference,"
to enable others to "hang out a shingle" at any stage of life.
"We haven't provided enough options for people who are
teachers," Masters says. "All they are trained to do is to go
into the classroom. For instance, they get no business
training. We are suggesting teachers be trained differently,
to give them a wider range of choices."
Master says she inherited her positive attitude from her
father, labor lawyer Ned Smokier. Working with Morris
Sugar, he was general counsel for the newly formed United
Autoworkers Union.
"Instead of nursery rhymes, I used to sing, 'We shall not
be moved,"' Master remembers. "My dad used to say,
`Change was never brought about by a majority, but by a
vociferous, tenacious minority.'"

From the pages of the Jewish News for
this week 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50
years ago.

Sharon Hart and Ronald Riback
were named chairmen of the Super
Sunday phone-athon for the Allied
Jewish Campaign.
A field and brush fire destroyed
part of Moshav Ahihud in the west-
ern Galilee.

1980

Sam M. Cohodas of Ishpeming was
re-elected emeritus trustee of
National Jewish Hospital-National
Asthma Center in Denver.
Stephen C. Cooper, candidate for
46th district judge in Southfield,
spoke to McDonnell Towers seniors
on "Seniors Have Rights, Too."

Congregation Beth Achim
announced that the coming
Sabbath services would be the last
in the Detroit synagogue's building
on Schaefer.
Yeshiva University in New York
dedicated its new 20-story Science
Center for Belfer Graduate School
of Science.
Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek
welcomed Detroiters Mr. and Mrs.
Samuel Hamburger on their recent
tour of Israel.

Joseph Silverstein, Detroit-born vio-
linist with the Boston Symphony
Orchestra, was awarded a top nation-
al music award, valued at $5,000.
James E Grossman, a Mumford
High School senior, replaced
Detroit Mayor Louis Miriani for
the day as part of the city's Boys
Day observance.

In Bombay, guests attended a
reception given by the Israel delega-
tion to celebrate India's recognition
of the State of Israel.
Twenty Jewish religious students
arrived in London to train at the
Sunderland Talmudic College.
Al Jolson died in San Francisco at
age 64.
— Compiled by Sy Manello,
editorial assistant

10/27
2000

41

1

