Meet the Team

Lydia Dolch founded Open the Lid in 2019. Yes, she opened the lid. Yes, we went there. No, we’re not sorry.

She’s an empowerment coach who meets people right where they are. Any age. Any learning style. Any location. Then she helps them get where they want to go, usually faster than they expected.

It all started in Argentina. An 11-year-old boy named Juan, who had never spoken a word in his life, said her name. One word. Career decided.

Other tools showed up as a surprise. A head injury. Sensory processing disorder. And kids of her own who taught her the services system from the parent side of the table. Nobody hands out diplomas for those. They should.

Today she leads a team of seriously incredible educators and professionals offering custom classes for people with disabilities and allies of all ages. She’s also a speaker people keep inviting back. Probably for the stories. Definitely for the lipstick.

Bring your questions, your quirks, and your big ideas. Lydia will bring the pink lipstick. (Probably.)

Erica Shockley is one of the warmest humans on the planet. That’s not hype. Ask anyone. She talks with a slight Southern twang and a poet’s way with words, and she can melt the most tightly wound person in the room into a puddle of smiles and/or happy tears. Usually in under five minutes.

She’s spent 20+ years walking people through big transitions. Leaving high school. Starting college. Figuring out what comes after. At Ithaca College, she directed the First-Year Experience, ran outdoor orientation for new students, and built a success pathway for first-generation college students. Today, at SUNY Cortland, she runs college and career programs for high schoolers and their families, from campus visits to career exploration.

Then there’s the yoga. Erica is a 500-hour registered yoga teacher with training in trauma-informed, restorative, and accessible practice. She runs her own business, Open Flow Yoga, and teaches across Ithaca. If your shoulders live up by your ears, she will gently escort them back down.

Bring your worries, your what-ifs, and your clenched jaw. Erica will bring the calm. Y’all will leave smiling.

Marcy R. Sutherland, M.S.Ed., is with you from the first hello. Not halfway there. Not checking her phone. All in.

She’s genuinely invested in helping you figure out you. What’s working, what’s not, and what might work if you looked at it from a new angle. Fresh perspectives. New solutions. Zero judgment. Zero shame.

And her loyalty? Think you’re devoted to your dog? Compare yourself to Marcy and you may be in for a humbling.

She’s taught kids, taught teachers, and taught the people who teach teachers. At some point it’s just teaching all the way down. Her résumé reads like a passport: classrooms in Brooklyn, Washington DC, and Washington Heights, college courses at Ithaca College and Lehman College, two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Uganda, and leadership programs at MIT and the Rockwood Leadership Institute.

She’s also a certified health coach. So yes, she’ll ask how you’re sleeping.

Bring your messy middle. Marcy will bring a fresh angle, and she’s not going anywhere.

Molly L. Hajjar, MPA, CTRS, believes everyone belongs outside. On a bike. In a kayak. Flying down a ski slope. Sidelines are for snacks.

She’s spent 30+ years in recreational therapy, using adaptive outdoor sports to get people of all ages in on the action. She started at a residential rehab center, then packed up for Grenada as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Since then she’s taught at Ithaca College, rallied Tompkins County to bike and walk with Bike Walk Tompkins, and trains volunteers at Greek Peak Adaptive Snowsports.

Molly’s minivan has hauled more adaptive bikes and kayaks than most sporting goods stores. Half her house is gear she wants you to try. She’s our main in-person pro, so Ithaca folks, you hit the jackpot.

Bring your sense of adventure. Molly will bring the kayak. And the bike. And probably a spare.

Nicole Boyle is a facilitator at Open the Lid who has spent 13+ years helping people say what they need and get what they need. With words, with pictures, with a device, with a gesture. However you communicate, Nicole is fluent.

She’s worked just about every seat in the room: community support professional, life skills coach, co-teacher, and lead classroom teacher. For three years she was a teacher and case manager where she led planning meetings, set students up with communication devices, and coordinated services across schools and agencies so families didn’t have to chase everyone down themselves.

Along the way she’s built her own curricula, communication tools, visuals, and trainings. If a student needs it and it doesn’t exist yet, Nicole makes it.

Bring your voice, whatever shape it takes. Nicole will help you turn up the volume.

Nicole is a facilitator at Open the Lid, and you’ll know her when you see her. Look for the signature earrings. They’re almost as big as her smile when you hit an “aha!” moment. Almost.

Nicole is all about helping you meet your future self. First, she helps you figure out what you actually want. Then she helps you build the tools to get there. Then, and this is the part most people skip, she makes sure you have what you need to stay there.

Technology is her secret weapon. Nicole has spent 19 years finding creative ways to use tech so people can work smarter, stay organized, and turn big dreams into everyday reality. Apps, systems, shortcuts, whatever fits your life.

She’s also a teacher of teachers. Nicole has designed and led professional development, mentored new educators, managed teams, presented at regional conferences, and won grants to fund one-of-a-kind learning experiences.

Bring your big dreams. Nicole will help you build the toolkit to make them stick.

Margaret Henry got her first job at 16 and figured out fast what she was here for: helping the people whose voices don’t get heard the first time. Twenty-plus years later, she’s still at it. In communities, in schools, in living rooms in and out of the United States.

Margaret is the person you want when life needs more structure. Clear steps. Clear expectations. No surprises. She’s also fluent in the stuff nobody tells you. The unwritten rules. The hidden expectations. The “everybody just knows that” moments. Margaret writes them down so you don’t have to guess.

Her move? She gets to know you. Really. What lights you up, what wears you out, where you want to go. Then she helps you get there, in the setting you choose, and helps you learn to advocate so everybody is moving in the same direction.

She has a degree in History. She’s mostly interested in your future.

When she’s not becoming an expert in you, she’s planned curriculum and staff trainings, designed sensory spaces in schools, made one-of-a-kind materials, led student planning teams, and mentored plenty of educators.

Bring your whole story. Margaret will help you read between the lines.

Monica Sherman started her teaching career at about age eight. No license. No paycheck. Just a red and white duffle bag full of handmade lessons and a neighborhood full of “students” who had no idea what was coming. They learned anyway.

Some people find their calling. Monica packed hers in a duffle bag.

Today she’s got 20+ years in the Ithaca City and Dryden Central School Districts and runs a small middle school class where nothing is one-size-fits-all. She teaches in English and ASL. Pick your language. She’s got you.

Her real master class? Home. Monica is a foster parent, an adoptive parent, and a mom to kids who think differently. Trauma-informed teaching isn’t a buzzword for her. It’s Tuesday.

Monica also lives on a family farm with a four-legged crew that keeps growing. They tend to crash sessions. Nobody has ever complained.

Bring your chickens. Monica will bring the plan. The barnyard brings itself.

Soleil Flaquer wants every student to have a real shot at a future they want to get out of bed for, whether that is college, career, or something beyond. Not just the people with a plan. Everyone.

As Open the Lid’s Outreach and Education Specialist, she brings Cuban family roots and a lifetime of switching between two languages and two cultures. Now she does it on purpose, translating life and language between US and Hispanic communities, especially around accessibility. A great resource is useless if it never reaches the family who needs it. Soleil makes sure it does.

She comes from school-based leadership, where she teamed up with counselors, families, and community partners to map out life after high school, one student at a time.

Off the clock, Soleil is mom to a daughter who could take the cutest kid contest without trying. One giggle and Soleil is in the pool, fully dressed or not. Resistance is futile.

Spreadsheets bring Soleil genuine joy. Color-coded, cross-referenced, beautiful. Her closets? Different story. Don’t go looking for Marie Kondo in there.

Bring your “what’s next,” in English or en español. Soleil will help you find the how.

Traci Fitzgerald does not take no for an answer. Services denied? She’s contested them and won. For her own kids and for her students. More than once. Traci is undaunted, unapologetic, and a total baddy with a heart bigger than Texas.

She’s also a mom who built her family through foster care adoption. And she’s hard of hearing, so she knows firsthand what it takes to get the world to meet you halfway. Spoiler: sometimes you have to make it.

At home, Traci keeps goats. Ask her about them. Seriously.

At work, she’s put in 20+ years with learners of every age. Seventeen of those were as a teacher with TST BOCES, working with kids in kindergarten through sixth grade who needed something more custom than the standard playbook. Before that, she was a one-on-one aide. Before that, she ran an infant and toddler room inside a retirement community, where babies and grandparents hung out together on purpose.

Got a no you don’t believe in? Bring it to Traci. She’s not scared.

Rio Turonis is a working artist. Songwriter, musician, poet, performer. She knows the thrill of a great show and the stress of figuring out how to pay rent with your art. That's exactly why she does this work.

Rio loves nothing more than helping artists find their platform and their paycheck. Where to share your work. How to build an audience. How to turn a passion into something that actually pays. She's been there, and she's happy to share the map.

She's spent 15+ years as a teaching artist and youth programs leader across New Jersey. She's led songwriting intensives and a summer camp focused on young artist development. She's coached young people to write and perform their own poetry, music, and theater, then put them on stage at large community concerts.

Along the way, Rio has mentored other teaching artists and trained program leaders across an entire agency. Helping people find their voice is one thing. Helping them find an audience? That's where the magic happens.

Rio brings big, warm, positive energy to every group she leads. Everyone is welcome, and everyone gets a turn at the mic.

Bring your art and your ambition. Rio will help you get it seen, heard, and paid.