All therapists at Speech Connections are licensed by the Virginia Board of Health Professions and
maintain their Certificate of Clinical Competency from the American Speech‐Language‐Hearing
Association.  Our therapists also hold a teaching certificate from the Virginia Department of Education
with an endorsement in Communication Disorders.

Kathryn S. Alter, M.S., CCC-SLP

Kathy Alter has been providing speech therapy services in central Virginia since 1978. She received her Master's degree in Speech Pathology from James Madison University. Kathy served as a part-time Clinical Educator in the Communication Sciences and Disorders department at Longwood University. She was responsible for the supervision of graduate students the Longwood Center for Communication, Literacy and Learning. Kathy continues to supervise Longwood’s graduate students during their clinical placement at Speech Connections.

Kathy has provided services to children, ages 2 to 21 years, in local school systems and in private practice. She has also worked with adults in long term care, rehabilitation, and home health settings. She has most recently participated in continuing education seminars in the areas of apraxia, oral motor development, fluency, attention disorders and evidence based practices. Kathy is Level One trained in Talk Tools™- Oral Placement Therapy methods.

Kathy enjoys including families in the therapy process. She is particularly interested in working with children diagnosed with autism, developmental delays, deficits in listening comprehension, as well as, childhood apraxia of speech.

JoAnn R. Cullop, M.Ed., CCC-SLP

JoAnn has provided speech/language therapy services to children and adults in a variety of settings since 1982. She received a Master’s degree from the University of Virginia in 1982.

JoAnn has experience working with school-aged children in a variety of public schools settings. She also provided speech-language therapy services to students at the Frankfurt International School and the Department of Defense Dependents Schools in Germany. Her experiences include working with children who have autism and severe disabilities. She also has many years of experience working with adults in long term care, rehabilitation, and home health settings. She worked with Early Intervention programs to provide speech and language services to infants. JoAnn has a special interest in several areas of communication including preschool autism, apraxia and social language skills.

JoAnn is trained to implement The Social Butterflies Social Language Programs and has training and experience with Floortime and ABA methodologies.  In addition she is Level One trained in Talk Tools- Oral Placement Therapy methods and completed Geri Logeman’s Dysphagia training.

Beth Wise, M.S., CCC/SLP

Beth Wise has been providing speech-language therapy in the local school systems since 2002.  She received her Master’s degree in communication sciences and disorders form Radford University.  Beth also has an undergraduate minor degree in Exceptional Education.

Beth enjoys working in all areas of communication, but especially enjoys working with the preschool population.  Her areas of special interest in the field of speech-language therapy include apraxia of speech and pre-literacy development.   She also loves treating various phonological disorders.

Aside from her love of speech-language pathology, Beth enjoys cooking, reading, gardening, and spending time with her family and friends.

Laura Sampson, M.Ed., CCC-SLP

Laura Sampson has been providing speech-language therapy services in the central Virginia area since 2006. She maintains her American-Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Certificate of Clinical Competence (CCC), and is licensed by the Virginia Board of Health Professions.

Laura decided in high school that she wanted to work in a ‘helping’ profession, and began exploring the field of speech-language pathology during career days and observation opportunities. Laura continued pursuing this field, attending James Madison University (GO DUKES!), and graduated Cum Laude with a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders, and a non-teaching Minor in Special Education. She then attended The University of Virginia (Wahoowa!) and graduated with a Master’s of Education degree in Communication Disorders. Laura began her employment career as a Speech-Language Pathologist in a local public school division, and has also worked providing private therapy services to preschool and school-aged children, and as a therapist in private school settings. Laura has been an employee of Speech Connections, Inc. since September 2009, and especially enjoys working with articulation and phonological processing needs, Augmentative and Alternative Communicate (AAC) needs, and developing speech and language skills in children with a variety of communication challenges. Laura is an Independent Certified Instructor for the Baby Signs® program, and enjoys encouraging early communication interactions for babies and their families and caregivers.

Mary C. Goodman, M.S. CCC-SLP

Mary Goodman has been providing speech therapy services in the Richmond area since 1997. She received her Master’s degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders from James Madison University.  Mary has enjoyed working in a variety of settings including early intervention, adult rehabilitation and long term care, and most recently elementary and middle school settings.  Mary has a particular interest in working with children and adolescents to acquire, build, and use social language skills and then to generalize these skills into their natural environment.  Mary also has experience in the areas of articulation delays, apraxia, fluency disorders, and asperger’s syndrome.

Shelby Zanks, M.S., CCC-SLP

Shelby Zanks has been providing speech therapy services since 2009. She received her Master’s degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders from Longwood University. She has provided services to children, ages 3-15, in the school setting.  Shelby enjoys teaching parents techniques and games to use at home to promote language.  She has a particularly interest in working with children who are hearing impaired, have a diagnosis of autism and feeding disorders. In June 2011, Shelby completed the first part of the Pediatric Feeding Certification™ (PFC) program.  She also has experience in the areas of articulation delays, language delays, apraxia of speech, and fluency disorders.