The Friends One-Day Conference is a wonderful opportunity for families to come together and learn more about stuttering, supporting their child, and to begin building community. Children’s programming is activity-based and focuses on exploring attitudes and emotions, increasing understanding of stuttering, and instilling a greater sense of confidence — while making FRIENDS! SLPs and students will learn more about stuttering, current therapies, and the support available for those who stutter.

Financial assistance is available. If you would like to attend this one-day conference but you are experiencing financial difficulties and find the cost prohibitive, please reach out to Sara MacIntyre at: sara@friendswhostutter.org 

Elyse Lambeth received her master’s degree from University of Redlands. She is board certified in stuttering, cluttering, and fluency disorders and is a past chair of the executive board. Elyse works with kids who stutter, cluttering, and have atypical disfluencies at Seattle Children Hospital, co-facilitates the Seattle Stuttering Camp for Teens, and coordinates various workshops and stuttering events.

Melissa Kokaly is Assistant Professor and Clinical Supervisor Lead for Fluency Disorders at the University of Washington Speech and Hearing Clinic. She has taught stuttering courses and supervised stuttering practicum as well as organizing stuttering workshops and mentoring students and speech-language pathologists to help them discover the joy of stuttering therapy.

Tiffani Kittilstved (she/her/hers) is a speech therapist, a chapter leader for the National Stuttering Association’s Seattle Family Chapter and a PhD student. She also identifies as a stutterer and ADHDer. These disabilities have shaped her life profoundly and motivated her clinical interests in working with other stutterers as well as her research interests which aim to center the experiences of people who stutter with intersecting marginalized identities (e.g. BIPOC, women, queer folx, and individuals with multiple disabilities). She is based out of Seattle where she owns and runs a speech therapy collective – RAIN Therapy Collective – and is completing her PhD online through Idaho State University. She is originally from Spokane, Washington but has lived in Seattle for 6 years now. In her free time, she loves playing board games, drinking far too much coffee, and hanging out with friends.

Melissa Jensen, a person who stutters, is a 2013 graduate of Eastern Washington University with a Master’s Degree in Communication Disorders.  She is passionate about working with individuals of all ages who stutter.  Melissa has worked as a speech-language pathologist in the Lake Washington School District since 2013, primarily in elementary schools.  She has worked with people who stutter in a variety of settings, including schools, intensive summer programs, and outpatient settings.  Melissa is in the process of completing board certification as a specialist in stuttering, cluttering and fluency disorders (BCS-SCF).  Melissa currently resides in Kenmore, WA. 

Cecilia Goedert (she/her) is a speech-language pathologist based in Seattle, Washington. She has been involved in the stuttering community for most of her career, having participated in Camp Shout Out for Youth Who Stutter as a volunteer/graduate student and in their workshop program as a speech pathologist. Goedert also participated in Transcending Stuttering’s training cohort in 2021. She previously worked for the stuttering specialty clinic at National Therapy Center—a private practice on the East Coast—via telehealth. Goedert currently works for a large hospital system in the Seattle Metro area, where she works with pediatric and adult populations in the outpatient setting. Through her current position, she has collaborated with the speech pathology team on creating neurodiversity-friendly evaluation practices and updating evaluation and treatment materials for stuttering clients. Goedert is also an adjunct instructor at Eastern Washington University in Spokane, Washington, where she teaches a hybrid course on Multicultural Issues in Speech Pathology. Outside of work, Cecilia participates in the Seattle improv community and is interested in exploring the concept of using improv to build communicative confidence and create shared joy and experiences. She is excited to bring this idea to the FRIENDS one-day conference and to collaborate with the many wonderful individuals attending this year’s conference.

Sara MacIntyre, M.A., CCC-SLP is the One-Day Conference Director for Friends. Sara owns YouSpeak, LLC where she provides stuttering therapy in Philadelphia and virtually, as well as consulting services. Sara is an adjunct instructor at Teachers College, Columbia University in their graduate program and is the producer and moderator for Virtual Learning by Stuttering Foundation and the Stuttering Foundation Podcast. She is a board member for Friends: The National Association of Young People Who Stutter.