Adannaya Brown (she/her) is a parent of a person who stutters, dedicated advocate, friend, and student of the stuttering community. A relentless chaser of joy, her favorite pastimes are reading, dancing, and staring at the sky. She lives with her husband, four children, and two dogs in Aurora, Colorado. Email Adannaya

Jason Cassell, LCSW is a licensed psychotherapist who has been in practice since 1999. He is board certified in clinical social work, and has advanced training in psychoanalysis, trauma, and mindfulness. He is in private practice in New York City where he treats men, women, adolescents, and couples, including many patients who stutter. He helps his clients process and work through their feelings of shame, fear, and pain. In the past he has conducted workshops for speech therapists on counseling techniques at Friends, the National Stuttering Association, the American Institute for Stuttering, and New York University. His wife Kristel is a person who stutters and he has been a part of the stuttering community for the last 10 years. Email Jason

Tricia Zebrowski, Ph.D., CCC-SLP is Professor Emerita at the University of Iowa, and a speech-language pathologist specializing in stuttering. Her clinical, research and teaching expertise is stuttering intervention, with a special focus on teenagers who stutter. For over 20 years, Tricia directed UISpeaks for Teens, a residential therapy program for teens who stutter. Her most recent work attempts to uncover the ways of thinking that facilitate teenagers’ decisions about their stuttering. Email Tricia

Alexander Burday is a person who stutters and a speech-language pathologist. I am a deeply curious person and have used this curiosity to deeply explore a variety of fields of study and practices. My interests have taken me down the rabbit hole of study as well as to participation in a variety of groups and experiences. From joining and exploring menswork groups, martial arts, chiropractic, sitting in ceremonies of breath work, heart rate variability training, Kundalini Yoga, Qi Gong, and different forms of meditation to studying the autonomic nervous system, neuroscience, trauma, polyvagal theory, somatic experiencing, and embodiment, I believe that I have found many exceptional ways to support my practice as an SLP. I treat my own experience as a person who stutters as a meticulous experiment with which I am constantly feeling into how my mind and body respond. My work in private practice has allowed me to explore more of these modalities with my clients and it is affording all of us involved some truly amazing experiences. Email Alexander

We are John & Erin Samenuk. Our son is a young adult who stutters. In July 2015, we attended our first Friends conference. It was transformative in our understanding of stuttering. We, along with our family, have returned to five more conferences. Each time we have become even more rooted in this strong and supportive community of Friends. We look forward to supporting other parents on their own journey. Email John & Erin

Cheryl Goettsche, MS, CCC-SLP is a parent of a young man who stutters. This led her to becoming a speech-language pathologist and discovering Friends. She teaches undergraduate and graduate students at SUNY New Paltz and CUNY Lehman. Cheryl also supervises undergraduate clinicians at the on-campus speech and hearing center. She has worked in a variety of settings including preschool, hospital and telepractice. Email Cheryl