Carmelita is a licensed Speech and Language Pathologist with 35 years of pediatric experience in the school and clinical setting as well as a private practice. She completed her undergraduate degree in Speech Pathology at Elmhurst College and her Masters’s Degree in Communication Disorders at California State University in Long Beach. She has worked with a variety of age levels from Early Intervention through Adult. She has worked primarily throughout her career with children with a variety of communication needs within the school setting in pre-school through high school. Her experience includes working within the therapeutic day school and residential setting. She has a strong understanding of the special education process. Previous work experience also includes working with children and adults at Grant Hospital in Chicago as well as deaf and hard of hearing adults at Santa Ana College in California. She has assessed and treated children with a variety of speech and language disorders. Her specialty is pediatrics; treating children with autism, pragmatic/social language skills, hearing impairments, severe apraxia, articulation/phonological delays, voice disorders, fluency disorders and severe language and auditory processing deficits. She has also utilized a co-treat model with occupational therapists for children with severe sensory needs and autism. Her favorite part about being a therapist in the clinical setting is the opportunity to work closely with families. Her specialized training includes the Lidcombe Program of Early Stuttering Intervention and Lindmood Bell Visualizing and Verbalizing. She also brings experience on how to strengthen literacy and written language skills for children elementary through high school. Carmelita has three grown daughters. She currently lives in the northwest suburbs with her husband. She loves to spend her free time with her family, traveling and volunteering. She is on staff at Northwest Community Hospital as a volunteer in the Animal Assisted Therapy Program with her therapy dogs.

Marie is a licensed speech-language pathologist. She received her Bachelor of Science in Communication Sciences & Disorders with a minor in Children’s Studies from Illinois State University. She received her Master of Education in Speech-Language Pathology from Valdosta State University. Marie has had experience evaluating and treating individuals in outpatient clinic, private practice, public elementary schools and early intervention. She has worked with clients with speech & language impairments, apraxia, social-pragmatic language disorder, autism spectrum disorder, cognitive disorder, fluency disorder, and eating and swallowing disorder. In her free time, Marie likes to hang out with her family and friends, enjoy nature, and watch TV shows and movies.

Elena DiSanto received her undergraduate degree in communication disorders from Northern Illinois University and her Masters of Arts in Speech-Language Pathology from the University of Urbana Champaign. She is a licensed speech-language pathologist who currently works at a therapeutic day school in the northwest suburbs, where her focus is implementing comprehensive alternative and augmentative communication systems for students to become active participants in their educational environment. She is passionate about the use of AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) to supplement and expand on students developing communication skills. Elena has specialized training in LAMP (Language Acquisition through Motor Planning), PECS (Picture Exchange Communication Systems) and Switch Access -for children who require switches to access their capacities to communicate. Elena believes that play is fundamental to a child’s development and is pivotal in the development of language and social communication skills. Her favorite part of being a therapist revolves around interacting with children and giving them the means to communicate with those around them. In her free time, Elena enjoys both gardening and reading.

Nick is passionate about his work as a speech-language pathologist. He began working with autistic children as a volunteer back in 2013, and after getting his bachelor’s degree in psychology, spent 4 years working with adults as an RBT. While working as an RBT, Nick became very interested in supporting communication for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD); this led him to pursue his master’s degree in speech-language pathology. As a therapist, Nick ensures that his sessions incorporate the interests of the child to keep kids engaged and motivated to communicate! Nick has been a musician since childhood, and often incorporates music in sessions to work on communication. In his free time, Nick enjoys playing Greek music on his lute.