About us
Our team
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Katya Hill, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, President and Executive Director
Katya Hill, Ph.D., CCC-SLP is an internationally recognized clinician in the field of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) and evidence-based practice. Dr. Hill has over thirty years of clinical experience with clients across the lifespan with complex communication and medical disorders along with years of teaching experience. She may be found working with children on the floor during a play therapy session while her next client may be an adult in the late stage of a degenerative neurological disability. She is the Executive Director/Clinical Supervisor and a co-founder of the AAC Institute. Dr. Hill has been the force behind the research and development of Language Activity Monitoring (LAM) tools. |
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Michael O’Leary, M.S., CCC-SLP, Clinical Research Director Email: moleary@aacinstitute.org
Michael O’Leary, M.S. CCC-SLP, is currently the PhD program at the University of Pittsburgh. He has public school experience providing diagnostic and treatment for speech-language and AAC services to middle and high school students. Currently, he focuses on providing AAC-related services to students with severe autism spectrum disorders at a partial hospitalization program along with outpatient AAC services across the lifespan. He specializes is the evaluation and treatment of individuals with severe movement disabilities who need alternative access methods to AAC systems, especially eye gaze and brain computer interface (BCI) access. Michael provides direct and consultative services and technical support for the ICAN Talk AAC Summer Camp. He has provides evidence based training on Alternative Access Methods for multiple school districts and has presented at national and state conferences including Closing the Gap, and the Pennsylvania State Speech and Hearing Association Conference (PSHA). |
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Shannon Daddario, C.O.O. AAC Institute & ICAN Talk Clinic
Email: scarney@aacinstitute.org Shannon has been in healthcare/office management for over 20 years. She specializes in medical billing and coding. Shannon also coordinates care between specialties for clients and assists with medical record management. Shannon operates and coordinates the AAC Institute continuing education department for professionals. She is passionate in advocating for the community. As a parent of a special needs child, she understands the obstacles that one may encounter. While living in Vermont, she founded and operated a support group for parent's of special needs children. She has continued this work here in Pennsylvania with the AAC Parents group. |
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Cassandra Bortot, M.S., CCC-SLP, Consultant
Email: cbortot@aacinstitute.org Cassandra earned her Master’s degree in Speech-Language Pathology from Duquesne University in 2016. She joined the ICAN™ Talk Clinic in 2016 where she provides outpatient therapy. She specializes in treating individuals with Primary Progressive Aphasia and Dementia. She also provides speech and language services at the PLEA School in Wilkinsburg, PA, which is a school for children with behavioral and developmental challenges. |
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Christine Lepore, M.A., CF-SLP
Email: clepore@aacinstitute.org Christine earned her Master’s degree in Speech-Language Pathology from the University of Pittsburgh in 2020. She is currently completing her Clinical Fellowship with the ICAN™ Talk Clinic, and she provides speech and language services at the PLEA School in Wilkinsburg, PA, as well as adult, and pediatric clients. Her interests in the field of speech-language pathology include AAC and providing treatment to children with language disorders. |
Melanie Kester, M.S., CF-SLP
Email: mkester@aacinstitute.org
Melanie earned her Master’s degree in Speech-Language Pathology from the University of Clarion in 2020. She is completing her Clinical Fellowship with the ICAN™ Talk Clinic, where she provides speech and language services. She also has the opportunity to work at PLEA school in Wilkinsburg providing the same skills to the students there. She loves working with AAC devices and is excited to get her career started at ICAN™ Talk Clinic.
Email: mkester@aacinstitute.org
Melanie earned her Master’s degree in Speech-Language Pathology from the University of Clarion in 2020. She is completing her Clinical Fellowship with the ICAN™ Talk Clinic, where she provides speech and language services. She also has the opportunity to work at PLEA school in Wilkinsburg providing the same skills to the students there. She loves working with AAC devices and is excited to get her career started at ICAN™ Talk Clinic.
Kelsey Carney, Volunteer Mentor, AAC User
Email: kelsey.a.carney@gmail.com
Kelsey Carney has an Associates Degree in Human Services. She mentors youthand adults in the ICAN Talk Clinic. This provides an invaluable service to those who may not have the chance to communicate to communciate with another AAC user. She also has been volunteering with the ICAN Talk AAC Summer Camp for over 6 years. She is a newly appointed volunteer board member for the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust.
Email: kelsey.a.carney@gmail.com
Kelsey Carney has an Associates Degree in Human Services. She mentors youthand adults in the ICAN Talk Clinic. This provides an invaluable service to those who may not have the chance to communicate to communciate with another AAC user. She also has been volunteering with the ICAN Talk AAC Summer Camp for over 6 years. She is a newly appointed volunteer board member for the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust.
ICAN Talk Clinic is honored by the many Speech Language Pathologists who choose to complete their Clinical Fellowship (CF) with us and are now providing quality clinical services in a variety of employment settings. Also, we are proud of the University of Pittsburgh Masters and CScD students we have provided AAC clinical training. We are an employment opportunity for SLPs enrolled in the CScD program and an in-network clinical placement site for graduate students at the University of Pittsburgh.