Staff Q&A

Undergraduate Degree: Vanderbilt University
Master’s Degree: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Joined MMTA in 2005

Areas of special interest:
-Conversation as a social language skill
-Social development in individuals with social language deficits
-The roles and methods of schools in teaching students with social language needs

Personal effects:
-She is a single mom of a teen boy she adores
-She is a member of the Unitarian Universalist faith and has a special interest in religious education
-She reads whenever she can and likes to get outdoors when it's not too hot
-She takes a lot of pictures, especially of her son, of barns, and of unusual patterns she sees in nature

Some things you may not know about Lynn:
-She hails from the deep south
-She once won a cow chip throwing contest at a sorghum festival (if you have no idea what that means, just ask her!)
-She is the office “handyman”
-She is addicted to Diet Dr. Pepper
-Her first paying job as an SLP was doing research on the effects of middle ear fluid on language development in low income African American children.

Undergraduate Degree: Loyola University, Baltimore
Master’s Degree: Loyola University, Baltimore

Years at MMTA: 17

Areas of Special Interest:
-CAS
-Children with emerging language
-Social Cognition, particularly how it overlaps with mental health
-Individuals whose communication abilities are compromised by complex sensory and/or
motor needs

Personal Effects
- She has two kids of her own and her fiancé has three- 4/5 are boys
- She loves to walk, hike, and go to the beach
- She enjoys words games and crossword puzzles

Some things you may not know
- She wants to be a neurologist or drummer in her next life- until then she is striving to
keep a steady beat
- She left her heart in San Francisco
- Her guilty pleasure is reality TV and People magazine
- She zip-lined through the rain forest in Puerto Rico to acknowledge her 40 th birthday
- Her curly hair didn’t emerge until she was 16- (prior to this time she got perms!)

Undergraduate Degree: Penn State University
Master’s Degree: Temple University
Joined MMTA in 2015

Areas of special interest:​
-Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)
-Childhood Apraxia of Speech
-Social cognition in adolescents

Personal effects:
-She married her high school sweetheart in 2017
-She is a die-hard Penn State football fan (and was named "Brittany" because it rhymed with "Nittany")
-She has 24 first cousins

Some things you may not know about Brittany:
-She has been a singer her whole life, and was the director of an all-female acappella group in college (yes, just like Pitch Perfect)
-She thrives on her hidden skills of rapping and beatboxing
-Staff members at MMTA refer to her as “The Nutcracker” because she is notorious for working with clients that are self-proclaimed “tough nuts to crack”
-She spends too much of her free time on Pinterest pinning therapy materials and recipes

Undergraduate Degree: University of Pittsburgh
Master’s Degree: University of Pittsburgh
Joined MMTA in 2017

Areas of special interest:
-Autism Spectrum Disorders
-Preschool/Early Language Development
-Social Communication
-Augmentative and Alternative Communication

Personal effects:
-She loves being active and outdoors, experimenting with new recipes, and exploring new restaurants
- She likes to spend time off traveling to new places- her favorite destination was South Africa
-She values time with friends and family, including her a twin (not identical) sister, Rachael

Some things you may not know about Alexa:
-She is a lover of coffee, dogs, and murder-mystery television
-She has a strong phobia of bugs
-Her favorite holiday is Halloween

Areas of special interest:
-Childhood Apraxia of Speech
-Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)
-Individuals with complex communication profiles

Personal effects:
-She loves being active and outdoors - walks on the beach, nights around a campfire, and exploring everything in between.
-She likes traveling to new places (locally and internationally).
-Her favorite pass time is being surrounded by her family.

Some things you may not know about Valentina:
-She enjoys throwing pottery on the wheel and creating jewelry.
-She has two dogs - a super mutt and a Great Dane.
-She is a second generation American.

B.S. in Public Health Education from West Chester University
MBA in Healthcare Management from University of Massachusetts
Joined MMTA in 2018

Personal effects:
-She has a son that lives in Southern California and a daughter who lives in Philly
-She’s a practicing meditator
-She loves any TV show/movie with the British accent
-The beach is her happy place

Some things you may not know about Laura:
-She was born without a doctor
-She is an army brat
-She had a past career in commercial interior design
-She loves to travel

Undergraduate Degree: Temple University
Master’s Degree: Temple University
​
Joined MMTA in 2020

Areas of special interest:
-Early language development
-Childhood apraxia of speech
-Social cognition

Personal effects:
-She grew up by the beach and loves being outdoors, especially by water
-She enjoys traveling, taking art classes, and attending concerts
-She loves plants and currently cares for more than 25 houseplants (and counting)

Some things you may not know about Laura:
-Her first job was at a singing ice cream shop where she dressed up as Snow White and sang “Part of Your World” at birthday parties
-She has a fancy leopard gecko named Lady Goodman
-She minored in Spanish and studied abroad in Spain

Undergraduate Degree: Temple University
Master’s Degree: Emerson College

Joined MMTA in 2021

Areas of special interest:
Autism Spectrum Disorders
Social cognition
 
Personal effects:
-She loves listening to rock music and going to concerts.
-She has been a vegetarian for 8 years.
-Her happy place is the beach
 
Some things you may not know about Alex:
-She collects vinyl records.
-She is a lover of all things scary and spooky.
-Her family calls her a fish because she would stay in the water all day if she could.

Undergraduate Degree: Temple University
Master’s Degree: Temple University
Joined MMTA in 2015

Areas of special interest:
-Early language development
-Voice disorders
-AAC

Personal effects:
-She is the proud mom of two cats, Link and Sasha Fierce, and a cockatiel, Mattie
-She has been an avid Beyoncé/Destiny’s Child fan for over 10 years
-She is a marathon runner

Some things you may not know about Jill:
-Jill met Lynn when she was in college, working at Starbucks, and Lynn was her customer!
-Her family immigrated to the United States from Indonesia
-She has seen Ben Folds in concert 9 times
-She is a thrift shopping and bargain hunting expert.
-She had a previous job as a wedding singer

Undergraduate Degree: Penn State University
Graduate Degree: Hofstra University
In process of getting ESL certification from Eastern University

Joined MMTA in 2010

Areas of special interest:
-Second Language Development
-Social Language Development
-School Based Speech Services

Personal Effects:
-She lives with her husband, Lee, her daughter, Olivia, and her Boston Terrier, Conshy.
-She loves to spend her summers down the shore with her extended family
-Photography is a hobby she is learning, she practices by taking pictures of Olivia and Conshy
-Running and yoga are her favorite ways to spend her free time

Some things you may not know about Lindsay:
-Her favorite treat is anything that has peanut butter and chocolate
-She loves to travel and has a long list of places she wishes to visit
-She loves to plan and organize anything – parties, a closet, and therapy are just some examples
-She has run in over a dozen half marathons, and tries to run in at least one distance run each year