Virtual Reading Gym

Elizabeth Nadler-Nir, Inventor and Consultant
MSc Speech Language Pathology (University of Cape Town)

Elizabeth graduated as a Speech Language therapist in 1992 and worked for many years within multi-disciplinary teams and at schools. In 2007 she began working with a talented team of Speech Language therapists to offer a language based literacy intervention to school age students. As Elizabeth, a therapist, mentor and lecturer in her peer community honed her skills over the years, it became apparent that not only did she have to turn children away because the need exceeded the capacity of her practice, but that there were also many problem readers who could neither afford therapy nor gain access to therapists or reading centres. How to solve these problems? The idea of the Virtual Reading Gym (VRG) was born. Together with her co Executive Directors, David Lewis and Natalia Pereira, Elizabeth spent three years developing an affordable and accessible online programme where remedial readers work with a mentor.

Elizabeth is passionate about helping more children to read and she doesn’t only want them reading confidently – she wants them to love it.

Natalia Pereira, Executive Director
BLC LLB (cum laude) (University of Pretoria)

Natalia trained as an attorney specialising in Intellectual Property (IP). She has worked both locally and internationally. She was a partner at a multinational commercial law firm for over 10 years and was head of the international trade marks department representing many multinational clients. Natalia is also involved in training, mentoring and skills development in the field of IP.

As a director of Hot Logic Marketing she has been able to fulfil her entrepreneurial dream and desire to make a difference. Hot Logic invests in, mentors and develops exciting start-up projects and entrepreneurs. She has put her many years of experience in protecting and commercialising IP and her creative skills to help realise the development of VRG.

David Lewis, Executive Director
B.Bus. Sci Marketing, Economics (Hons) (University of Cape Town)

David, a highly successful and admired maverick left corporate life at the top of his game as head of Marketing at Metropolitan Life. He established his own company Hot Logic Marketing which invests in and markets innovative, creative and entrepreneurial ventures. The Virtual Reading Gym ticked all the boxes and it is a product with which David is proud to be associated

Margaret Lewis
Writer

Margaret’s love for books started when she was three as she explored her way through her parent’s wide collection. A gift of The Hobbit in primary school increased her passion.

She has a Bachelor of Arts majoring in English, from the University of Witwatersrand. As a journalist with Caxton Press she developed her writing skills across a wide range of subjects.

Her interest in children’s literature was rekindled when she read nightly to her own young children. She wants to share the wonder of words with as many children as possible. Margaret believes reading opens doors – some of them unexpected – and feels very privileged to be associated with VRG. Margaret hopes this wonderful programme gets more challenged readers reading – and loving it.