Staff

Q & A

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Lynn Medley, M.S., CCC-SLP - Communication and Educational Specialist, Co-Director, MMTA

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

Janice Mesaric M.S., CCC-SLP - Communication and Educational Specialist, Co-Director, MMTA

Undergraduate Degree: Loyola University, Baltimore

Master’s Degree: Loyola University, Baltimore

Joined MMTA in 2005

Areas of Special Interest:

• Oral Motor and Dyspraxia

• Children with emerging language

• Individuals whose communication abilities are compromised by complex sensory and/or motor needs

Personal Effects

She is a single mom to two young kids
She loves yoga and is forever trying to stretch her practice off the mat, especially breathing through the antics of her above two cherubs
She loves to walk, hike, and go to the beach

Some things you may not know

She is a closeted hip-hop and rap fan
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 40th birthday
Her curly hair didn’t emerge until she was 16 - (prior to then she got perms!)

Jill Hendricks, M.A., CCC-SLP

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

Brittany O'Brien, M.A., CCC-SLP

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

Lindsay Bacalles, M.S., CCC-SLP

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

Alexa Busler, M.A., CCC-SLP

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
Childhood Fluency Disorders

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, cats, and murder-mystery television
She has a strong phobia of bugs
Her favorite holiday is Halloween

Laura DePallo

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

Gina Nicolosi, M.S., CCC-SLP

Undergraduate Degree: Penn State University

Graduate Degree: LaSalle University

Joined MMTA in 2019

Areas of special Interest:

Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)
Autism Spectrum Disorder
Early Language Development

Personal effects:

She is a huge Penn State football and Philadelphia sports fan
She is the oldest sibling of four and her sister is ten years younger than her
She tries to see at least one beach sunrise a year
She has run 2 full marathons and over a dozen half-marathons in 9 different states

Some things you may not know about Gina:

She once did the Polar Bear Plunge with Jason Kelce from the Eagles
She has been sky-diving
She loves doing hair and make-up for herself and other, she learned from YouTube and Pinterest!
She has fundraised for cancer research for the past 6 years through from running the Philadelphia Half/Full Marathons
Both of her brothers are getting married in 2020 (and she LOVES her future sisters-in-law)

Laura Giglio, M.A., CCC-SLP

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

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