About Apraxia Kids

Apraxia Kids is the leading nonprofit that strengthens the support systems in the lives of children with apraxia of speech. Since our inception in 2000, Apraxia Kids has provided support to tens of thousands of families and professionals.

OUR VISION

A world where every child with apraxia of speech reaches their highest communication potential through accurate diagnosis and appropriate timely treatment. Every child deserves a voice.

OUR MISSION

Apraxia Kids is the leading nonprofit that strengthens the support systems in the lives of children with apraxia of speech by educating professionals and families; facilitating community engagement and outreach; and investing in the future through advocacy and research.

2023 ANNUAL REPORT

OUR IMPACT

Apraxia Kids is the leading organization in apraxia education and support for both families and speech-language professionals worldwide. We need to work across all regions to build awareness of our organization so that every family impacted by childhood apraxia of speech is supported.

When we were founded in 2000, we had no idea that there were so many children in need of an organization that was dedicated to helping children with apraxia.

Our organization was established by 3 moms in Pittsburgh, dedicated to improving the lives of their own children struggling with CAS, and the lives of others facing similar struggles. What started as an online discussion group quickly evolved into a network of support that extended across the country and across the world. Our Online Support Groups now provide resources to over 60,000 parents and professionals.

Join our online community

Over the years, the one thing that has always stayed the same is our commitment to educating parents and professionals.

We know that the most valuable resource we can provide is evidence-based information on childhood apraxia of speech. Our Online Webinars ensure that professionals have easy access to this information to further their knowledge of CAS, regardless of their location. Information on childhood apraxia of speech is available in our Article Library, which covers a variety of topics and continues to grow. Over half a million viewers access our website each year, spreading knowledge on childhood apraxia of speech. Our Virtual Education Series features information & recorded webinars about some of our most popular topics like school-based training, comorbidities, therapy, and more.

Start learning today
educating parents and professionals.

For more than 18 years, our organization has seen parents and professionals come together to learn at our National Conference.

This unique 3-day event is the cornerstone of everything we do – it brings together parents and professionals for a weekend of education and support. Since our first conference in 2004, we have educated over 5,000 people and awarded over 700 scholarships to attend.

Learn More About the National Conference

Our organization continued to grow when we realized we could better serve professionals by providing intensive training to speech-language pathologists across the country.

Our Intensive Training Institute began in 2011, and since then, over 100 SLPs across the country have received this highest level of training on evaluating and treating children with apraxia. These passionate and enthusiastic professionals have gone on to educate other professionals in their community, increasing families’ access to an appropriately trained SLP.

Find out more about Intensive Training
Each year has been an opportunity to further raise awareness of childhood apraxia of speech

Each year has been an opportunity to further raise awareness of childhood apraxia of speech.

We continue to celebrate children with apraxia of speech each year, and recognize them for their hard work. In May, we celebrate Apraxia Awareness Month, where our community seeks to educate others on childhood apraxia of speech. Our Walk for Apraxia began in 2008 as a way to publicly show support for our stars! Since then, over 130,000 walkers have honored over 10,000 children at walks across the U.S. and Canada! Volunteers are a critical component of our organization. Working together, we provide access to appropriate and dependable resources, to ensure every child with apraxia of speech is afforded their best opportunity to develop optimal communication skills.

Find a Walk in Your Area!

Throughout our history, we’ve worked towards a single purpose: improving the support systems in the lives of children with apraxia.

To help us achieve our goals, we rely heavily on the support of our families and professional community who are impacted. Since our founding, the unwavering dedication of our volunteers has helped our mission come to life, and continues to help us grow. We cannot thank them enough for their continued commitment. Our programs and services would not be possible without the generosity of donors who believe in our work and care about our mission. Thank you!

Make a donation today
Throughout our history, we’ve worked towards a single purpose: improving the support systems in the lives of children with apraxia.

VALUES

Apraxia Kids is dedicated to the communities we serve by creating support, education, awareness, advocacy and research. We are dedicated to:

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HOPE

Cultivating hope for families and children

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EQUALITY

Ensuring everyone has equal access to resources

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EVIDENCE-BASED INFORMATION

Providing high-quality, evidence-based information about diagnosis and treatment

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INNOVATION

Advancing innovation through research and education

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PARTNERSHIP

Facilitating partnerships among professionals and families to build a community of support

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EMPATHY

Unwavering support of the whole person with compassion, empathy, and understanding

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TRUSTWORTHINESS

Being responsible, trustworthy stewards of charitable funds and resources to ensure a sustainable future for the organization

OUR MISSION

COMMUNITY

Fostering opportunities for our apraxia communities to come together

GOALS

As the leading organization focusing on childhood apraxia of speech, our goals are:

To increase the understanding, awareness, and support for children with CAS
To provide training and educational opportunities for professionals and families
To give every child a voice by ensuring they have the opportunity to develop speech and communication skills
To create the largest network of CAS families, medical and speech-language pathologists, online support groups, and research experts
To facilitate advocacy in local communities for improved services for children affected by the disorder
To encourage and fund research in childhood apraxia of speech and sponsor scientific research meetings

MEET THE STAFF

MEET THE BOARD

The Apraxia Kids Board of Directors is comprised of a group of volunteer leaders who share a passion for the vision and mission of the organization. They are responsible for defining the organization’s mission and purpose, establishing long-term goals and strategic planning, monitoring general operations, and approving organizational outcomes and allocation of resources.

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Claudio Capone

Board Chair
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Claudio Capone, Regional VP of Business Development and Strategic Planning, Trinity Health – New England

Claudio Capone is the Regional VP of Business Development and Strategic Planning for the newly formed Trinity Health – New England ministry, currently a three hospital system in Southern New England. He is responsible for managing the creation and execution of strategic business initiatives for the region.  He has extensive experience in strategic planning, business development and physician relations having served as the director of these programs at Saint Mary’s Health System in Waterbury Connecticut and at The Hospital of Central Connecticut, a member of Hartford Healthcare.  He has worked on affiliation strategies, ambulatory development, physician alignment strategies, service line development and creating innovative tactics to meet today’s healthcare demands.

He holds a Masters in Healthcare Management and Bachelors in Political Science. Claudio is currently a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives, active with the CT ACHE chapter and serves on the Board of Directors of the New England Society for Healthcare Strategy.

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Amber Pinskey

Vice Chair
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Amber, a Manager in the Assurance & Advisory Group at Grossman Yanak & Ford LLP, has more than six years of experience in public accounting. She specializes in providing assurance services for a variety of clients including manufacturers and not-for-profit organizations. She also has experience with construction accounting, business acquisition transaction work and performing audits of employee benefit plans.

Amber earned a B.S. degree in accounting and finance in 2013, graduating summa cum laude from St. Vincent College. A certified public accountant (CPA) licensed in the state of Pennsylvania, Amber is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants (PICPA).

Amber resides in Greensburg, PA with her husband, Joey, and daughter, Addison.

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Sarah White

Treasurer
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Sarah White is a nonprofit consultant with over 15 years of experience working in finance, administration, development, and communications for social service, health care, higher education, and other nonprofit organizations.  Her experience and MBA in Nonprofit Management give Sarah a unique perspective on how each aspect of a nonprofit – from program service delivery and website development, to technology and human resources (and everything in between) – impacts an organization’s bottom line and its ability to accomplish its mission.  Sarah is also fluent in Spanish and has experience living and working in Mexico.  Sarah is a native Texan where she lives with her husband and daughter who has Childhood Apraxia of Speech.  In her free time, Sarah enjoys reading, volunteering, and traveling.

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Brennan Woods

Secretary
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Brennan is a Vice President in Investment Banking at Goldman Sachs where his responsibilities include overseeing third-party securitization on behalf of the firm’s CMBS and CRE CLO issuer clients. Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, Brennan was an Executive Director at J.P. Morgan in the CMBS Capital Markets group. He earned a BS in Economics & Finance from Bentley University and is a CFA Charterholder and CAIA Charterholder.

Brennan resides in Wyckoff, New Jersey with his wife and their three children, including a son with CAS. Consequently, he is passionate about helping all children find their voice.

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Lou LaVecchia

Ex-Officio Chair
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Lou LaVecchia joined Apraxia Kids as a board member in 2016.  His son Jayden was diagnosed with severe Apraxia of speech at 4 years old, presently Jayden has been declared resolved.  Lou has a proven record of working with his school district to improve the appropriate services for children in need of speech services.  He has presented seminars at the 2017, 2018 and 2019 Apraxia Kids National Conferences.  He works to raise awareness through local events, including attending walks for Apraxia.

Lou achieved a Bachelor of Science in Business Management and Organization from the University of Central Connecticut.  He currently is the vice president of All Seasons Landscaping Inc. (ASL) a construction company located in Connecticut.  There he is responsible for coordinating and directing all field operations as well as managing all administrative operations.

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Edwin Maas, PH.D.

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Edwin Maas received a masters degree in neurolinguistics from the University of Groningen (the Netherlands), and worked as a clinical linguist at the Rotterdam Aphasia Foundation before pursuing his Ph.D. in language and communicative disorders from San Diego State University and the University of California, San Diego. His early research focused on verb and sentence processing in aphasia and basic mechanisms of sentence comprehension. His interest in treatment research led him to shift focus to speech production and its disorders. To supplement his background and training in neurolinguistics, he obtained postdoctoral training at Boston University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a focus on speech motor control. He joined Temple University’s Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders in 2015.

As Co-Director of the Speech, Language, and Brain Laboratory (SLAB Lab), he conducts research on speech production across the lifespan in unimpaired individuals and in various populations with speech and/or language disorders, such as aphasia, apraxia of speech, and phonological disorders.

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STEPHANIE FERA

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Stephanie Fera is an associate practicing in the firm’s public sector labor, employment, and municipal group.  Prior to joining CFWW+S, Stephanie was employed by other Pittsburgh law firms handling civil litigation and labor and employment matters.   In the course of her practice, she has successfully represented clients in a variety of matters in the Pennsylvania state and federal courts.  She has counseled clients relating to discrimination and harassment claims, wrongful termination, and policies and procedures of employment.  She has represented counties and municipal clients in grievance arbitration, collective bargaining, interest arbitration, and unemployment compensation matters.

Stephanie obtained her law degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.  While there she served as executive editor of the University of Pittsburgh Law Review.  She also served as a teaching assistant in legal writing.  Prior to law school, she obtained her undergraduate degree from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and spent several years in retail management where her role involved various human resource functions and responsibilities.  That experience prompted her interest in practicing labor and employment law.  Stephanie was named a Pennsylvania Super Lawyers Rising Star in 2017 and 2018.

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Gary Fernando, M.D., FAAP

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Dr. Gary Fernando is the Chief Medical Officer at Crusader Community Health, a Federally Qualified Health Center in Rockford, Illinois. A graduate of the University of Illinois College of Medicine, he completed his pediatrics residency at Stony Brook University Long Island Children’s Hospital where he also served as Chief Resident. He has been part of the faculty and staff at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Rockford and The University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital. He is a diplomate fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and serves on multiple committees including government affairs, legislation, and education. He has been the recipient of multiple awards throughout his career for mentorship as well as education. He and his wife Monique have three children, the oldest of whom, Lucca, is 8 and years old and has severe speech apraxia. He has served on the board of directors of Apraxia Kids since 2018.

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Jeff Mills

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Mr. Mills holds a B.S. degree in Mathematical Economics from the United States Military Academy at West Point and an M.B.A from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. After graduating from the United States Military Academy, Mr. Mills served in the United States Army as an aviation officer. Prior to joining RCF in May, 2016, Mr. Mills held positions in various fundraising and client services, including most recently as Managing Director at Brooklands Capital Strategies, a division of TPG and Ares Management. Prior to Brookland Capital, he was the Head of Investor Relations and Marketing at Oak Hill Capital, and started in the industry with Probitas Partners.
“First and foremost, I am interested in helping in any way I can! My background is in organizational leadership, operational efficiency, marketing and business development over the last 25 years. I have learned and hopefully enhanced these skills both in the Army and in the private sector, primarily in financial services (private equity) firms.”

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Jonathan Spiegel

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Jonathan is a partner at BDO USA LLP, has nearly 20 years of domestic and international tax accounting, compliance, and process improvement experience in both public accounting and Fortune 500 corporate industry. He is a member of the American Institute of Public Accountants (AICPA).

Earned Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from Bryant University where he also played and coached rugby.

Jonathan joined Apraxia Kids as a board member in 2022. Inspired by his son Ricky, who was diagnosed with severe Apraxia of speech and his journey to find his voice after being told he would never speak.

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George Y. Lin

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George is the CEO and Co-Founder of Telligent Capital Management.  Telligent specializes in Asia and focuses on long term sustainable investing.  The firm manages and is the general partner of several funds and investment partnerships. The main strategy was launched in 2004 and has one of the longest track records in the region.  The firm was started in New York, headquarters are in Hong Kong.  Before launching Telligent, he was at Goldman Sachs in equity research. George was born in Taipei, Taiwan and grew up in the US, Singapore, and Hong Kong.  He is married to Melissa and they have three young boys.   He graduated from Stanford University with a BA in Economics and English with Honors and received an Executive MBA from CEIBS.

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Matthew Stevens

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Matthew Stevens is a seasoned healthcare executive with over a fifteen years of leadership experience and over ten years in healthcare administration. Matthew holds a SHRM-CP (Society for Human Resource Management – Certified Professional) certificate and earned a Master’s in Healthcare Administration from the University of Arkansas Fort Smith, along with a Bachelor’s in Business Administration from Harding University.

He is currently the Vice President of Human Resources at ARcare, a Federally Qualified Health Center, serving over 1,500 employees spread across three states.  Matthew is focused on shaping organizational culture and aligning human capital strategies with institutional goals.

Beyond the professional arena, Matthew actively engages in community service by serving on the board of Apraxia Kids (his son was diagnosed with CAS in 2018), the board for Searcy Youth Soccer Association, and the board for Central Arkansas Human Resources Association.  He also volunteers as a youth soccer and baseball coach.

Matthew resides in Searcy, Arkansas, with his wife, two children, and family dog.

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Amber Vecchio, PMP, CMQ/OE, CF APMP

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Amber Vecchio, PMP, CMQ/OE, CF APMP joined Apraxia Kids as a board member in 2023.  Her six-year-old daughter Delaney was diagnosed with Apraxia of Speech two years ago and continues to receive speech therapy services in kindergarten and through outpatient support. Her journey to an Apraxia diagnosis was difficult through COVID-19, but once Apraxia Kids’ resources were identified, Delaney’s speech significantly improved.

Amber is the Director of Proposals for AMI Expeditionary Healthcare and lives in the Pittsburgh, PA area. She is a designated Project Management Professional with the Project Management Institute, a Certified Manager of Quality and Organizational Excellence with the American Society for Quality, and has a Foundation Certification with the Association for Proposal Management Professionals. Her career includes 16 years of work with federal, state, and local government emergency management and disaster response.  She is actively involved with the International Association for Emergency Managers US Region III and K-12 caucuses. Amber strives to bring awareness to communicating with children who have Apraxia and focus on children in emergencies with accessibility and functional needs as a priority for everyone.

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Neil Kilby

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Neil Kilby is the Managing Director of Atticus Road, a branding agency that specialises in finding voices for brands and designing, developing and positioning them for growth.  He has over 15 years experience in brand strategy, has been responsible for multiple leading tourism brands in New Zealand, and has successfully introduced and grown brands in various industries in the United States, Europe and Australasia.

Neil holds a BA Honours Degree in Business from Sheffield Hallam University in England.  He started his career on the Graduate Training Scheme for Enterprise Rent-A-Car, where he managed multiple branches in East Anglia, including their largest in Europe, before emigrating to New Zealand in 2005.  In NZ, he held numerous senior marketing roles before founding Atticus Road in 2015, and also currently serves as a Business Mentor for Business Mentors NZ, a non-profit organisation supported by the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE).

Neil resides in Otatara with his wife and three children; Harpur, Harry and Corban.  Harry was diagnosed with severe Apraxia in 2022, aged 4.

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Alyson Taylor

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Alyson is a graduate from Emory University with a degree in Political Science and Spanish. She was a former child with Apraxia and now serves as an adult advocate. Understanding the firsthand struggles, she is dedicated to apraxia awareness and assisting families facing the disorder. She enjoys attending and speaking at Apraxia Kids Events, as well as writing her next Apraxia-related blog post. She previously volunteered with Girl Scouts of America as a Troop Leader and Girl Scout Gold Award Committee Member. In her free time, she loves reading, going to the movies, and watching the San Francisco 49ers hopefully winning a game.

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MARY STURM

Board Member Emerita
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Claudio Capone

Regional VP of Business Development and Strategic Planning, Trinity Health – New England

Claudio Capone is the Regional VP of Business Development and Strategic Planning for the newly formed Trinity Health – New England ministry, currently a three hospital system in Southern New England. He is responsible for managing the creation and execution of strategic business initiatives for the region. He has extensive experience in strategic planning, business development and physician relations having served as the director of these programs at Saint Mary’s Health System in Waterbury Connecticut and at The Hospital of Central Connecticut, a member of Hartford Healthcare. He has worked on affiliation strategies, ambulatory development, physician alignment strategies, service line development and creating innovative tactics to meet today’s healthcare demands.

He holds a Masters in Healthcare Management and Bachelors in Political Science. Claudio is currently a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives, active with the CT ACHE chapter and serves on the Board of Directors of the New England Society for Healthcare Strategy.

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Jeffrey Mills

Mr. Mills holds a B.S. degree in Mathematical Economics from the United States Military Academy at West Point and an M.B.A from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. After graduating from the United States Military Academy, Mr. Mills served in the United States Army as an aviation officer. Prior to joining RCF in May, 2016, Mr. Mills held positions in various fundraising and client services, including most recently as Managing Director at Brooklands Capital Strategies, a division of TPG and Ares Management. Prior to Brookland Capital, he was the Head of Investor Relations and Marketing at Oak Hill Capital, and started in the industry with Probitas Partners

 

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Alyson Taylor

Alyson is a graduate from Emory University with a degree in Political Science and Spanish. She was a former child with Apraxia and now serves as an adult advocate. Understanding the firsthand struggles, she is dedicated to apraxia awareness and assisting families facing the disorder. She enjoys attending and speaking at Apraxia Kids Events, as well as writing her next Apraxia-related blog post. She previously volunteered with Girl Scouts of America as a Troop Leader and Girl Scout Gold Award Committee Member. In her free time, she loves reading, going to the movies, and watching the San Francisco 49ers hopefully winning a game.

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Ruth Stoeckel

Sue Freiburger

Sue Freiburger is a Board Member of Apraxia Kids and the parent of a child with severe Childhood Apraxia of Speech. She has a background in scientific research, with an MSPH from UNC Chapel Hill and she currently works as an environmental consultant doing human health risk assessment for Jacobs. Sue attended the first Apraxia Kids National Conference in 2002 and was impressed with the high quality, research based information that the organization presented. As her son’s apraxia began to improve with intensive speech therapy, Sue wanted to give back to the organization that had helped their family so much when he was first diagnosed.
She coordinated the first Apraxia Walk in Pittsburgh in 2008 and, when other parents around the country expressed the desire to help spread awareness, she developed the apraxia walk program. She is proud of all of our Apraxia Stars and grateful to the many volunteers who give so much of their time and talent to make the Apraxia Walks special events that celebrate our children each year.

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Sarah White

Sarah White is a nonprofit consultant with over 15 years of experience working in finance, administration, development, and communications for social service, health care, higher education, and other nonprofit organizations. Her experience and MBA in Nonprofit Management give Sarah a unique perspective on how each aspect of a nonprofit – from program service delivery and website development, to technology and human resources (and everything in between) – impacts an organization’s bottom line and its ability to accomplish its mission. Sarah is also fluent in Spanish and
has experience living and working in Mexico. Sarah is a native Texan where she lives with her husband and daughter who has Childhood Apraxia of Speech. In her free time, Sarah enjoys reading, volunteering, and traveling.

Lincoln Purdy

A board member of Apraxia Kids since 2013, Lincoln Purdy is a Vice President with Starr Marine, a division of the Starr Indemnity & Liability Company.  Based in Boston, he currently serves as the worldwide product manager for Starr’s Marine Liability and Hull insurance practices.  Lincoln graduated from Trinity College in Hartford, CT where he met his wife, Nancy.   They reside in Franklin, MA with their two children.  Their daughter, now a proud college graduate, was diagnosed with CAS at age 3 and it was while doing on-line research to find help for her that Lincoln first became aware of Apraxia Kids.

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STEPHANIE FERA

Stephanie Fera is an associate practicing in the firm’s public sector labor, employment, and municipal group.  Prior to joining CFWW+S, Stephanie was employed by other Pittsburgh law firms handling civil litigation and labor and employment matters.   In the course of her practice, she has successfully represented clients in a variety of matters in the Pennsylvania state and federal courts.  She has counseled clients relating to discrimination and harassment claims, wrongful termination, and policies and procedures of employment.  She has represented counties and municipal clients in grievance arbitrations, collective bargaining, interest arbitrations, and unemployment compensation matters.

Stephanie obtained her law degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.  While there she served as executive editor of the University of Pittsburgh Law Review.  She also served as a teaching assistant in legal writing.  Prior to law school, she obtained her undergraduate degree from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and spent several years in retail management where her role involved various human resource functions and responsibilities.  That experience prompted her interest in practicing labor and employment law.  Stephanie was named a Pennsylvania Super Lawyers Rising Star in 2017 and 2018.

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Lou LaVecchia

Lou LaVecchia joined Apraxia Kids as a board member in 2016. His son Jayden was diagnosed with severe Apraxia of speech at 4 years old, presently Jayden has been declared resolved. Lou
has a proven record of working with his school district to improve the appropriate services for children in need of speech services. He has presented seminars at the 2017 & 2018 Apraxia Kids
National Conference. He works to raise awareness through local events, including attending walks for Apraxia.
Lou achieved a Bachelor of Science in Business Management and Organization from the University of Central Connecticut. He currently is the vice president of All Seasons Landscaping Inc. (ASL) a construction company located in Connecticut. There he is responsible for coordinating and directing all field operations as well as managing all administrative operations.

Professional Advisory Council

These are among the most esteemed therapists and researchers in the CAS community. From helping with research funding decisions to making suggestions for website content, they provide support to Apraxia Kids in many valuable ways.

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RUTH STOECKEL

PH.D., CCC-SLP
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Ruth Stoeckel, PhD, CCC-SLP is a speech-language pathologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN and specializes in the assessment and intervention of children with apraxia of speech. With 30 years of experience, Dr. Stoeckel has delivered services to children in schools, outpatient clinics, and rehabilitation hospital settings. She is often asked to render 2nd opinions on CAS diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment progress. Dr. Stoeckel has presented lectures, workshops and advanced training on Childhood Apraxia of Speech on an international level, including the United States, Canada, and Australia. Additionally, Dr. Stoeckel has authored and delivered numerous web-based courses focused on CAS. She has co-authored articles on CAS assessment and treatment in numerous peer-reviewed journals.

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SUSAN CASPARI

M.A., CCC-SLP
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Sue Caspari is an instructor and clinical supervisor in the department of Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD). Prior to joining the Temple CSD faculty, Caspari worked as a speech-language pathologist with children and adults in a variety of settings including early intervention, private practice and inpatient and outpatient hospital settings, including the Mayo Clinic. Over the years, she has come to specialize her practice in the assessment and treatment of children with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). Her specific research interests and publications focus on the early identification and treatment of motor speech disorders, including CAS.

Caspari is a member of the Professional Advisory Council with Apraxia Kids, an associate member of the Academy of Neurologic Communication Disorders and Sciences, and a member of ASHA’s Neurophysiology and Neurogenic Speech and Language Disorders Special Interest Division. She is also the owner of Caspari and Colleagues, LLC, a group of SLPs dedicated to providing consultation, evaluation and therapy services for children with CAS and other severe speech sound disorders; and the director of an intensive 5-week summer program for children with CAS.

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AMY CLARK

M.S., CCC-SLP
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Amy is a treatment clinician and CARES representative at Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota. She has extensive experience working with children with developmental delays, motor speech disorders, autism spectrum disorders, and language disorders. She holds her Certificate of Clinical Competency and is licensed in Minnesota. She has been responsible for providing supervision for other speech-language pathologists and graduate students.

In addition to PROMPT training, she has post graduate training and experience in auditory processing, Fast ForWord, Relationship Development Intervention (RDI), childhood apraxia of speech, and feeding. Past experience included work with adults and junior high school students. Amy has a special interest in motor speech disorders.

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ELAINE DOLGIN-LIEBERMAN

M.A., CCC-SLP
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Elaine Dolgin-Lieberman, MA, CCC-SLP, is a pediatric speech language pathologist working in private practice, with special interest in treating children with motor speech sound disorders. She is a graduate of Apraxia Kids’s Intensive Training Institute (Boot Camp) 2011 and is recognized by Apraxia Kids as having Advanced Training and Clinical Expertise in Childhood Apraxia of Speech. Elaine is a graduate supervisor and Professional Instructor in the Graduate Communication Disorders Program at Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry where she teaches an annual summer elective on Childhood Apraxia of Speech. Elaine has provided workshops on evidenced- based therapy strategies locally and at Apraxia Kids National Conferences. Elaine is a member of the Professional Advisory Council.

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Gary Fernando

M.D., FAAP
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Sue Freiburger

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Sue Freiburger a parent of a child with severe Childhood Apraxia of Speech. She has a background in scientific research, with an MSPH from UNC Chapel Hill and she currently works as an environmental consultant doing human health risk assessment for Jacobs. Sue attended the first Apraxia Kids National Conference in 2002 and was impressed with the high quality, research based information that the organization presented. As her son’s apraxia began to improve with intensive speech therapy, Sue wanted to give back to the organization that had helped their family so much when he was first diagnosed. She coordinated the first Apraxia Walk in Pittsburgh in 2008 and, when other parents around the country expressed the desire to help spread awareness, she developed the apraxia walk program. She is proud of all of our Apraxia Stars and grateful to the many volunteers who give so much of their time and talent to make the Apraxia Walks special events that celebrate our children each year.

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CHRISTINA GILDERSLEEVE-NEUMANN

Ph.D., CCC-SLP
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Christina Gildersleeve-Neumann, PhD, CCC-SLP is Professor and Chair of the Speech and Hearing Department at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon. Her areas of expertise include severe speech sound disorders in monolingual English and bilingual Spanish-English children. She has been working with children and adolescents with severe speech sound disorders since Kathy supervised her in graduate school 22 years ago! Her research explores articulatory and phonology influences on speech development and disorder in children from monolingual and bilingual environments and includes intervention research for severe speech sound disorders, including Childhood Apraxia of Speech, in English and Spanish-English children. Core to all of her work is understanding and application of phonetic science and phonetic transcription. She has been teaching phonetics for over 20 years. In her spare time she loves traveling and listening to other languages, especially figuring out what people do in their vocal tract to produce different sounds, as well as how listeners categorize those sounds in language-specific ways!

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MARIA GRIGOS

PhD, CCC-SLP
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Maria Grigos is a Professor and Chair in the Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders at New York University. Dr. Grigos also directs the Motor Speech Lab at NYU. Her scholarly work combines the use of perceptual, acoustic and kinematic methods to pursue two lines of research. The first centers on the study of speech motor control and motor learning across the lifespan. The second focuses on translational research where she studies the efficacy of motor-based intervention in childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). Research in the Motor Speech Lab is funded by the NIH National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders and the Once Upon a Time Foundation. Dr. Grigos holds clinical certification from the American Speech, Language and Hearing Association, and is licensed in speech-language pathology in New York State

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JENYA IUZZINI-SEIGEL

PH.D., CCC-SLP
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Dr. Iuzzini-Seigel received her B.F.A in Studio Art and Socio-Cultural Anthropology at SUNY at Binghamton and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Speech and Hearing Science at Indiana University-Bloomington. She joined the faculty at Marquette University in the fall of 2015. Dr. Iuzzini-Seigel’s research centers on speech development and its disorder with specific focus on Childhood Apraxia of Speech. She is the Director of the Communication, Movement, and Learning Lab where she aims to identify factors that contribute to disorder onset and resolution for children with communication disorders. Her current research takes a multilevel approach to determine the relation among procedural learning and speech, language, and motor deficits in children with Childhood Apraxia of Speech. Dr. Iuzzini-Seigel is also interested in communication and motor performance in bilingual individuals, including bilingual children with communication disorders.

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EDWIN MAAS

PH.D.
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Edwin Maas received a masters degree in neurolinguistics from the University of Groningen (the Netherlands), and worked as a clinical linguist at the Rotterdam Aphasia Foundation before pursuing his Ph.D. in language and communicative disorders from San Diego State University and the University of California, San Diego. His early research focused on verb and sentence processing in aphasia and basic mechanisms of sentence comprehension. His interest in treatment research led him to shift focus to speech production and its disorders. To supplement his background and training in neurolinguistics, he obtained postdoctoral training at Boston University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a focus on speech motor control. He joined Temple University’s Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders in 2015.

As Co-Director of the Speech, Language, and Brain Laboratory (SLAB Lab), he conducts research on speech production across the lifespan in unimpaired individuals and in various populations with speech and/or language disorders, such as aphasia, apraxia of speech, and phonological disorders.

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PATRICIA MCCABE

PH.D., BApplSP, FSPAA, CPSP
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Dr Tricia McCabe CPSP is Head of Discipline and Professor of Speech Pathology in the Faculty of Health Sciences at The University of Sydney. She has published 75 peer reviewed journal articles, supervised more than 20 research students, and has had $3.6 million in research grants. Tricia’s research, teaching and clinical practice are all focussed on improving treatments for moderate-severe speech impairments in children and adults. In particular, she wants to improve treatments for children with Childhood Apraxia of Speech and this has resulted in the two Randomised Control Trials comparing different interventions in this population. With a team of colleagues, she has developed the Rapid Syllable Transition Training intervention (ReST), a novel intervention which uses drill practice of non-words to improve the motor planning skills. This treatment has been shown to be effective in both face to face and telehealth service delivery. In 2017, a free internet based training program for clinicians in ReST was funded by The Ian Potter Foundation and this training will provide many more children with access to this innovative treatment. Tricia is also interested in the application of EBP in speech pathology, service delivery innovations and professional voice user training. Tricia maintains a small private practice in Sydney providing second opinion assessments and treatment to children and adults with speech disorders. Tricia tweets as @tricmc on speech pathology topics and baking.

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Amy Skinder-Meredith

PH.D., CCC-SLP
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Amy Skinder-Meredith, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, is a Clinical Professor at Washington State University-Spokane, where she is Chair and has been the director of Camp Candoo, an intensive summer program for children with CAS. She has worked in the public schools, hospitals, university clinic, and private practice settings for over 30 years. She has published and presented her research on CAS at national conferences and is on the Professional Advisory Council for Apraxia-Kids. She enjoys the constant learning that comes with working with kids with CAS as they get older and sharing the journey of what’s worked at workshops for practicing speech-language pathologists and families nationally and internationally. She co-authored of Here’s How to Treat Childhood Apraxia of Speech, 3rd edition with Margaret (Dee) Fish.

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Angela Morgan

Ph.D.
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Angela is Director of Research and Teaching in Speech Pathology at The University of Melbourne. She is also Associate Professor and Director of the Centre for Neuroscience of Speech across The University of Melbourne and the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, Royal Childrens Hospital, Melbourne, Australia. She has over 15 years of clinical and research experience in pediatric rehabilitation in Australia and the United Kingdom (UK). She gained an international view of pediatric rehabilitation during her post at the Institute of Child Health University College London conjointly with The Childrens Trust Rehabilitation Centre in the UK. Her current Australian-based NHMRC research program consists of two streams: i) a clinical-research stream focused on rehabilitation of children with acquired brain injury, and ii) a neuroscience stream focused on the neurobiological basis of swallowing and communication disorders in childhood.

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MEGAN OVERBY

Ph.D., CCC-SLP
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Dr. Megan Overby, an Associate Professor at Duquesne University, specializes in childhood apraxia of speech (CAS), speech sound disorders, literacy, and telepractice. She has over 20 years of experience as a speech-language pathologist in schools, hospitals, agencies, and university clinics in addition to having maintained a private practice. Dr. Overby’s research in CAS has focused on potential early red flags of the disorder, its social consequences, and associations between CAS and literacy development. In addition, she was the primary investigator in a grant-funded study of the home language environment of young children with CAS. She presents regularly at conferences and workshops on assessment and literacy topics related to CAS and has published her research in multiple journals and textbook chapters. At Duquesne, Dr. Overby teaches courses in speech sound development and assessment.

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Nancy Potter

PH.D., CCC-SLP
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JONATHAN PRESTON

Ph.D., CCC-SLP
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Dr. Jonathan Preston, CCC-SLP is a speech-language pathologist who has been working with children with speech sound disorders for 15 years. He received his PhD from Syracuse University in 2008 and completed postdoctoral training at Haskins Laboratories, an affiliate of Yale University. He is an Associate Professor in the Communication Sciences and Disorders Department at Syracuse University. His research focuses on neurolinguistically-motivated and evidence-based assessments and treatments for speech sound disorders, and his research has been supported by the National Institutes of Health and Apraxia-Kids. He is currently involved in multiple clinical trials to study biofeedback treatments and different service delivery models for children with persisting speech sound errors, including those with CAS.

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BROOKE REA

MClSc,SLP (C)
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Brooke Rea is a Canadian pediatric Speech-Language Pathologist. She owns a private centre in Guelph, Ontario, which is exclusively dedicated to assessing, treating and supporting children with Motor Speech Disorders including Childhood Apraxia of Speech. She spends considerable time supporting and teaching professionals and parents on their journeys with CAS, throughout Ontario and Canada. She is a graduate of the Apraxia Kids Intensive Training Institute (Boot Camp, 2014) and is Apraxia Kids Recognized for Advanced Training and Expertise in Childhood Apraxia of Speech. Brooke has lectured at numerous university and college programs and has been an invited speaker at conferences and workshops across Canada to speak about Childhood Apraxia and pediatric motor speech disorders. In addition, Brooke also provides clinical supervision and support to students and SLPs working with CAS. Brooke is a licensed speech-language pathologist with the College of Audiologists and Speech-Language Pathologists of Ontario (Canada) and a Certified SLP with Speech-Language & Audiology of Canada. Brooke’s passion for Apraxia Kids runs deep; she a founding board member of Apraxia Kids Canada, a multi-year Walk Coordinator and fundraiser, conference speaker, and Intensive Training instructor. She is excited to serve on the Professional Advisory Council to represent Canada and Canadian needs with respect to Apraxia Kids and their mission.

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EDYTHE A. STRAND

Ph. D., CCC-SLP
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Dr. Edythe Strand is an emeritus Professor in the Mayo College of Medicine and former Head of the Division of Speech Pathology, Department of Neurology at the Mayo Clinic, in Rochester Minnesota. Dr. Strand’s research has focused on developmental, acquired and progressive apraxia of speech, and issues related to intelligibility and comprehensibility in degenerative dysarthria. She has a long history of clinical experience, including the public schools, private practice, and hospital and clinic settings.

Her primary clinical and research interests include assessment and treatment of children and adults with neurologic speech and language disorders. Dr. Strand’s publications include many articles and book chapters related to motor speech disorders. She frequently gives lectures on the assessment and treatment of motor speech disorders in children and adults, management of communication disorders in degenerative neurologic disease, and neuroanatomy. She is the co-author of the books: Management of Speech and Swallowing in Degenerative Disease; Clinical Management of Motor Speech Disorders in Children and Adults; and is Co-editor of the book, Clinical Management of Motor Speech Disorders in Children. She is an ASHA fellow and has recently been awarded Honors of the Association of the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association.

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NANCY TARSHIS

M.A., M.S., CCC-SLP
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Nancy Tarshis is a speech-language pathologist with an extensive background in working with children and their parents. She has a Master of Arts in Education of the Deaf and a Master of Science in Speech/Language Pathology, both from Teachers College, Columbia University. She is supervisor of Speech and Language Services at Children’s Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center at Montefiore. Currently, she supervises seven SLPs, lectures to medical residents and psychology interns, participates in research, serves as adjunct instructor at New York area graduate schools and continues to maintain a clinical practice seeing patients birth to 21 for diagnoses/treatment. She is a consultant to two New York City schools on social emotional learning. She has extensive experience with a variety of treatment methodologies including Social Thinking.  She is the co-author of their early learner curriculum, We Thinkers Volume 1 and 2 (formerly “The Incredible Flexible You.”)

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SHELLEY VELLEMAN

PH.D., CCC-SLP
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Dr. Shelley Velleman’s educational and professional experience has been extensive and varied, with a common theme of speech production in children. Her PhD from the University of Texas at Austin (1983) is in Linguistics, with a specialization in child phonology (speech development). She has one master’s degree in Applied Linguistics (teaching English as a second language) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1978) and one in Communication Disorders/Speech-Language Pathology from the University of Massachusetts (1985). She has many years of pediatric clinical experience as well as many years of teaching as a tenure system faculty member at the undergraduate and graduate levels at Elms College in Chicopee, MA and at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst, where she was an associate professor of communication disorders from 2005- 2011.

Dr. Velleman’s research focuses on speech sound development in typically-developing (TD) children and in children with disorders. Her studies of TD children have focused on how the language or dialect of exposure affects the process of learning to talk, including such languages as English, French, Japanese, Finnish, and Welsh as well as the African American English dialect. With respect to disorders, she specializes in motor speech disorders, especially Childhood Apraxia of Speech. She seeks to identify and remediate the motor speech, phonological, and literacy difficulties associated with neurodevelopmental syndromes, such as autism spectrum disorders, Down syndrome, Williams syndrome, and 7q11.23 Duplication syndrome (which was just identified in 2004).

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Sue Caspari

Sue Caspari is an instructor and clinical supervisor in the department of Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD). Prior to joining the Temple CSD faculty, Caspari worked as a speech-language pathologist with children and adults in a variety of settings including early intervention, private practice and inpatient and outpatient hospital settings, including the Mayo Clinic. Over the years, she has come to specialize her practice in the assessment and treatment of children with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). Her specific research interests and publications focus on the early identification and treatment of motor speech disorders, including CAS.

Caspari is an advisory board member of the Childhood Apraxia of Speech Association of North America, an associate member of the Academy of Neurologic Communication Disorders and Sciences, and a member of ASHA’s Neurophysiology and Neurogenic Speech and Language Disorders Special Interest Division. She is also the owner of Caspari and Colleagues, LLC, a group of SLPs dedicated to providing consultation, evaluation and therapy services for children with CAS and other severe speech sound disorders; and the director of an intensive 5-week summer program for children with CAS.

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CHRISTINA E. GILDERSLEEVE-NEUMANN

PHD, CCC-A, CCC-SLP

Christina Gildersleeve-Neumann, PhD, CCC-SLP is Professor and Chair of the Speech and Hearing Department at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon. Her areas of expertise include severe speech sound disorders in monolingual English and bilingual Spanish-English children. She has been working with children and adolescents with severe speech sound disorders since Kathy supervised her in graduate school 22 years ago! Her research explores articulatory and phonology influences on speech development and disorder in children from monolingual and bilingual environments and includes intervention research for severe speech sound disorders, including Childhood Apraxia of Speech, in English and Spanish-English children. Core to all of her work is understanding and application of phonetic science and phonetic transcription. She has been teaching phonetics for over 20 years. In her spare time she loves traveling and listening to other languages, especially figuring out what people do in their vocal tract to produce different sounds, as well as how listeners categorize those sounds in language-specific ways!

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Edwin Maas

PhD

Edwin Maas received a Masters degree in neurolinguistics from the University of Groningen (the Netherlands), and worked as a clinical linguist at the Rotterdam Aphasia Foundation before pursuing his Ph.D. in language and communicative disorders from San Diego State University and the University of California, San Diego. His early research focused on verb and sentence processing in aphasia and basic mechanisms of sentence comprehension. His interest in treatment research led him to shift focus to speech production and its disorders. To supplement his background and training in neurolinguistics, he obtained postdoctoral training at Boston University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a focus on speech motor control. He joined Temple University’s Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders in 2015. As Co-Director of the Speech, Language, and Brain Laboratory (SLAB Lab), he conducts research on speech production across the lifespan in unimpaired individuals and in various populations with speech and/or language disorders, such as aphasia, apraxia of speech, and phonological disorders.
Two central, overarching questions motivate and drive this research:
(1) What is the underlying nature of a givenspeech disorder? and
(2) How can we optimize treatment for speech disorders?

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AMY MEREDITH

PhD

Dr. Amy Meredith’s primary clinical and research interest is in children with motor speech disorders. She has published and presented her research on childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) at national and international conferences.

Currently, she is investigating phonological awareness and early reading skills of children with CAS. She is also looking at the role of visual feedback using electropalatography and real-time spectrography in treatment of children with persistent speech sound disorders, including CAS.

In 2012, Meredith received a Martin Luther King Jr. Distinguished Service Award for the innovative strategies she uses to educate students, including those from diverse backgrounds, as well as for her dedication to provide services to children with disabilities and their families. Read the full award announcement in the WSU Spokane Campus Bulletin. Read more about WSU’s Martin Luther King Jr. Distinguished Service Award.

Meredith has given numerous workshops for practicing speech-language pathologists across the country on assessment and treatment of CAS. Prior to receiving her doctorate, she worked in the public schools, hospitals, and private practice settings as a speech-language pathologist.

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Jonathan Preston

PhD

Dr. Preston is a speech-language pathologist and a clinical researcher. His laboratory at Syracuse University studies neurolinguistically-motivated and evidenced based assessments and treatments for speech sound disorders, including childhood apraxia of speech. He has received support through the National Institutes of Health to study treatments for childhood apraxia of speech, including variations in service delivery models as well as ultrasound visual feedback.

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AMY CLARK

M.S., CCC-SLP

Amy is a treatment clinician and CARES representative at Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota. She has extensive experience working with children with developmental delays, motor speech disorders, autism spectrum disorders, and language disorders. She holds her Certificate of Clinical Competency and is licensed in Minnesota. She has been responsible for providing supervision for other speech-language pathologists and graduate students.

In addition to PROMPT training, she has post graduate training and experience in auditory processing, Fast ForWord, Relationship Development Intervention (RDI), childhood apraxia of speech, and feeding. Past experience included work with adults and junior high school students. Amy has a special interest in motor speech disorders.

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Maria Grigos

PhD

Maria Grigos is an Associate Professor in in the Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, & Human Development. Dr. Grigos is director of the Communicative Sciences and Disorders masters program and directs the Motor Speech Laboratory at NYU. Her scholarly work uses kinematic, acoustic and perceptual methods and pursues two lines of research. The first examines speech motor development in children with speech sound disorders, which includes studying the efficacy of speech intervention for children with apraxia of speech. The second examines changes in speech production and facial movement in adults following facial transplant surgery, together with an interdisciplinary team from the NYU Langone Health System. Funding from the National Institutes of Health, NYU Steinhardt and Apraxia-Kids has supported her research. Dr. Grigos holds clinical certification from the American Speech, Language and Hearing Association, and is licensed in speech-language pathology in New York State. Dr. Grigos earned a Bachelor of Science from New York University, and both a Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy from Teachers College, Columbia University.

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Tricia McCabe

BAppSc(Sp) PHD CPSP

Dr Tricia McCabe CPSP is Head of Discipline and Professor of Speech Pathology in the Faculty of Health Sciences at The University of Sydney. She has published 75 peer reviewed journal articles, supervised more than 20 research students, and has had $3.6 million in research grants. Tricia’s research, teaching and clinical practice are all focussed on improving treatments for moderate-severe speech impairments in children and adults. In particular, she wants to improve treatments for children with Childhood Apraxia of Speech and this has resulted in the two Randomised Control Trials comparing different interventions in this population. With a team of colleagues, she has developed the Rapid Syllable Transition Training intervention (ReST), a novel intervention which uses drill practice of non-words to improve the motor planning skills. This treatment has been shown to be effective in both face to face and telehealth service delivery. In 2017, a free internet based training program for clinicians in ReST was funded by The Ian Potter Foundation and this training will provide many more children with access to this innovative treatment. Tricia is also interested in the application of EBP in speech pathology, service delivery innovations and professional voice user training. Tricia maintains a small private practice in Sydney providing second opinion assessments and treatment to children and adults with speech disorders. Tricia tweets as @tricmc on speech pathology topics and baking.

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Edythe A. Strand

PhD, F-ASHA

Dr. Edythe Strand is an emeritus Professor in the Mayo College of Medicine and former Head of the Division of Speech Pathology, Department of Neurology at the Mayo Clinic, in Rochester Minnesota. Dr. Strand’s research has focused on developmental, acquired and progressive apraxia of speech, and issues related to intelligibility and comprehensibility in degenerative dysarthria. She has a long history of clinical experience, including the public schools, private practice, and hospital and clinic settings.

Her primary clinical and research interests include assessment and treatment of children and adults with neurologic speech and language disorders. Dr. Strand’s publications include many articles and book chapters related to motor speech disorders. She frequently gives lectures on the assessment and treatment of motor speech disorders in children and adults, management of communication disorders in degenerative neurologic disease, and neuroanatomy. She is the co-author of the books: Management of Speech and Swallowing in Degenerative Disease; Clinical Management of Motor Speech Disorders in Children and Adults; and is Co-editor of the book, Clinical Management of Motor Speech Disorders in Children. She is an ASHA fellow and has recently been awarded Honors of the Association of the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association.

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Nancy Tarshis

MA, MS CCC-SLP

Nancy Tarshis is a speech-language pathologist with an extensive background in working with children and their parents. She has a Master of Arts in Education of the Deaf and a Master of Science in Speech/Language Pathology, both from Teachers College, Columbia University. She is supervisor of Speech and Language Services at Children’s Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center at Montefiore. Currently, she supervises seven SLPs, lectures to medical residents and psychology interns, participates in research, serves as adjunct instructor at New York area graduate schools and continues to maintain a clinical practice seeing patients birth to 21 for diagnoses/treatment. She is a consultant to two New York City schools on social emotional learning. She has extensive experience with a variety of treatment methodologies including Social Thinking. She is the co-author of their early learner curriculum, We Thinkers Volume 1 and 2 (formerly “The Incredible Flexible You.”)

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Elaine Dolgin-Lieberman

M.A., CCC-SLP

Elaine Dolgin-Lieberman, MA, CCC-SLP, is a pediatric speech language pathologist working in private practice, with special interest in treating children with motor speech sound disorders. She is a graduate of Apraxia Kids’s Intensive Training Institute (Boot Camp) 2011 and is recognized by Apraxia Kids as having Advanced Training and Clinical Expertise in Childhood Apraxia of Speech. Elaine is a graduate supervisor and Professional Instructor in the Graduate Communication Disorders Program at Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry where she teaches an annual summer elective on Childhood Apraxia of Speech. Elaine has provided workshops on evidenced- based therapy strategies locally and at Apraxia Kids National Conferences. Elaine is a member of the Professional Advisory Council.

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Jenya Iuzzini-Seigel

Ph.D., CCC-SLP

Dr. Iuzzini-Seigel received her B.F.A in Studio Art and Socio-Cultural Anthropology at SUNY at Binghamton and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Speech and Hearing Science at Indiana University-Bloomington. She joined the faculty at Marquette University in the fall of 2015. Dr. Iuzzini-Seigel’s research centers on speech development and its disorder with specific focus on Childhood Apraxia of Speech. She is the Director of the Communication, Movement, and Learning Lab where she aims to identify factors that contribute to disorder onset and resolution for children with communication disorders. Her current research takes a multilevel approach to determine the relation among procedural learning and speech, language, and motor deficits in children with Childhood Apraxia of Speech. Dr. Iuzzini-Seigel is also interested in communication and motor performance in bilingual individuals, including bilingual children with communication disorders.

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Rebecca J. McCauley

Professor Faculty Ohio State University

Rebecca received a B.S. (Psychology, 1973) from Louisiana State University, and an M.A. (Social Sciences, 1974) and Ph.D. (Psychology: Cognition and Communication, 1981) from the University of Chicago. She completed postdoctoral training at the University of Arizona and Johns Hopkins University before joining the faculty at University of Vermont in 1986. During her 23-year tenure at UVM, she achieved the rank of Professor and served in several administrative capacities. In 2008, Rebecca joined Ohio State at the rank of Professor and since 2009 has served as chair of the Graduate Studies Committee. Her research/teaching interests focus on assessment and treatment of children’s communication disorders, especially speech sound disorders. She has authored and co-edited numerous publications, including 6 books, and is director of the Children’s Communications Laboratory. Rebecca holds the ASHA CCC-SLP, is an ASHA Fellow, a Board Recognized Specialist in Child Language, and a former associate editor of AJSLP.

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Dr. Megan Overby

Rebecca received a B.S. (Psychology, 1973) from Louisiana State University, and an M.A. (Social Sciences, 1974) and Ph.D. (Psychology: Cognition and Communication, 1981) from the University of Chicago. She completed postdoctoral training at the University of Arizona and Johns Hopkins University before joining the faculty at University of Vermont in 1986. During her 23-year tenure at UVM, she achieved the rank of Professor and served in several administrative capacities. In 2008, Rebecca joined Ohio State at the rank of Professor and since 2009 has served as chair of the Graduate Studies Committee. Her research/teaching interests focus on assessment and treatment of children’s communication disorders, especially speech sound disorders. She has authored and co-edited numerous publications, including 6 books, and is director of the Children’s Communications Laboratory. Rebecca holds the ASHA CCC-SLP, is an ASHA Fellow, a Board Recognized Specialist in Child Language, and a former associate editor of AJSLP.

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Shelley Velleman

Ph.D., CCC-SLP

Dr. Shelley Velleman’s educational and professional experience has been extensive and varied, with a common theme of speech production in children. Her PhD from the University of Texas at Austin (1983) is in Linguistics, with a specialization in child phonology (speech development). She has one master’s degree in Applied Linguistics (teaching English as a second language) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1978) and one in Communication Disorders/Speech-Language Pathology from the University of Massachusetts (1985). She has many years of pediatric clinical experience as well as many years of teaching as a tenure system faculty member at the undergraduate and graduate levels at Elms College in Chicopee, MA and at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst, where she was an associate professor of communication disorders from 2005- 2011.

Dr. Velleman’s research focuses on speech sound development in typically-developing (TD) children and in children with disorders. Her studies of TD children have focused on how the language or dialect of exposure affects the process of learning to talk, including such languages as English, French, Japanese, Finnish, and Welsh as well as the African American English dialect. With respect to disorders, she specializes in motor speech disorders, especially Childhood Apraxia of Speech. She seeks to identify and remediate the motor speech, phonological, and literacy difficulties associated with neurodevelopmental syndromes, such as autism spectrum disorders, Down syndrome, Williams syndrome, and 7q11.23 Duplication syndrome (which was just identified in 2004).

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