About Apraxia Kids

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Paula is an attorney admitted to practice law in both California and her home country, Guatemala, and holds a master’s degree in computer and communications law from Queen Mary University of London. She is also a Certified Information Privacy Professional and a Certified Information Privacy Manager with over 10 years of global experience in data protection and privacy. Paula currently works remotely as Holland & Knight’s International Compliance Senior Analyst leading and supporting privacy and compliance programs in their LATAM offices.  Paula’s professional experiences, personal journey as a parent and passion for diversity and inclusion, led her to become an advocate for apraxia and bilingualism after her first born was diagnosed with severe apraxia. Their own struggles to find the appropriate supports in the middle of a global pandemic ignited her commitment to help others, both locally and abroad, understand this disorder. Her hope is that by raising awareness and sharing resources, every child with CAS will have access to the best support possible for their own unique journey. Paula is a native Spanish speaker and currently resides in Texas with her husband and their two bilingual daughters.

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Molly Beiting, PhD, CCC-SLP is a postdoctoral researcher at Syracuse University. She completed her PhD at Temple University in 2022. Dr. Beiting’s research involves children and teens with CAS as well as other speech sound disorders. She has a special interest in improving diagnosis and treatment for individuals with complex communication profiles due to multiple co-occuring conditions, including autism, developmental language disorder, and reading challenges. Dr. Beiting is also a certified SLP and has experience supporting children in school and private practice settings. As a member of the Apraxia Kids Professional Advisory Council, Dr. Beiting looks forward to strengthening connections between families, research, and clinical practice communities. Outside of work, Dr. Beiting enjoys any opportunity to get creative–including pottery, printmaking, cooking, and gardening.

Sarah Carmody is a multilingual pediatric SLP who owns a small private practice in southern NJ. She has a background in broad pediatric service delivery within the medical setting, having served in large hospital systems for several years and worked extensively with multilingual children and families across the outpatient, private, and school setting. Through her private practice, Sarah now specializes in assessment and treatment of complex speech production difficulties and motor speech disorders. Sarah also serves as an adjunct faculty member at Widener University. She has a passion for teaching, and enjoys advancing the knowledge of SLPs, other professionals, and family/community members as it pertains to supporting individuals with CAS across the lifespan. Sarah is a proud graduate of the Apraxia Kids Intensive Training Institute (“Boot Camp”) and is equally proud and humbled to have served as part of the Boot Camp Instructor panel for the 2023 cohort.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

Lisa is the co-owner and clinical director of Clearly Speaking, a pediatric private practice with three clinics located throughout the state of New Hampshire.

Lisa is an ASHA certified speech language pathologist who has been evaluating and treating children with speech and/or language difficulties for over 20 years. She received her bachelor’s degree from Ithaca College, master’s degree from Nova Southeastern University specializing in augmentative and alternative communication, and doctoral degree from Northwestern University.  She has professional licenses to practice in NH, MA, ME and VA.

Prior to opening her practice in 2008, Lisa worked with children with a variety of speech and language disorders across various settings including schools for specialized instruction (autism, emotional disabilities and learning disabilities), public schools, hospitals and home based care. Over the last ten years, Lisa has received extensive training in the area of Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS).  She specializes in the assessment and treatment of this population and is passionate about bridging research to practice.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.”)