About The Granite Bay Speech Team

Christine is passionate about supporting neurodivergent individuals with communication using multiple modalities for self-advocacy. Christine has varied work experience with children and adults. She began her career as a Speech Language Pathology Assistant with medically fragile children in a Pediatric Prescribed Extended Care (PPEC) center. She continued her career as a Speech Language Pathologist in the public school system, skilled nursing facilities, assisted living facilities, and home health. Christine has worked in several facilities across different states including
Florida, Nebraska, Iowa, and California.

Christine views neurodiversity as a natural human variance that should be embraced. Autistic communication and social skills are naturally effective, and her goal is to assist parents and teachers understand their communication differences and foster relationships.

In her leisure time, Christine enjoys traveling with her husband and three children. Her hobbies also include baking, reading, and exploring the outdoors. She is enthusiastic to be joining the Granite Bay Speech therapy team and looks forward to working with new clients.

Lael has worked in the Oakland Public Schools, Easter Seals Bay Area, and the San Juan Unified School District.  She currently performs speech and language assessments for the Department of Social Services. Lael is also trained in AAC and holds a certificate in Accent Modification from the American Speech and Hearing Association.

In addition, she is a choral conductor who has lead choruses for over 20 years, with a strong interest in voice and vocal pathologies as well as the incorporation of music in her therapy.

After earning her M.A, Rima worked at pediatric clinics all throughout the Chicago area, providing individual and group therapy in both the home and clinic settings. A large part of her caseload included treating children ages birth to three years old, through the early intervention program in the state of Illinois. Upon returning to her hometown of Los Angeles, Rima joined a multidisciplinary pediatric clinic and worked closely with other professionals to treat children on a global level that also addressed physical, sensory, and social-emotional needs of each client. Rima’s areas of expertise for the pediatric population (birth-twelve) include receptive and expressive language disorders, motor speech and articulation disorders, language-based learning disorders, auditory processing difficulties, and social/pragmatic challenges.

Rima began mentoring interns, clinical fellows, and other speech-language pathologists while continuing to build her repertoire of skills through training such as PROMPT, Hanen: It Takes Two to Talk, Social Thinking, and Sequential Oral Sensory Approach to Feeding (SOS). Rima loves working with children and their families, believing that parent education and training are essential for optimal success and carryover of skills across settings.

Outside of work, Rima is busy raising her two little kiddos, learning a new recipe, reading, spending time with her family, and enjoying the California sunshine.

Heather has worked in the field of education for over twenty years. Her experience spans a wide age range, from birth to adolescence. She has worked with a variety of communication challenges, including, expressive and receptive language, auditory processing, dyslexia, articulation, apraxia, stuttering, phonological disorders, and social language skills. She most recently worked as a speech-language pathology assistant in the Folsom-Cordova Unified School system. She is excited to bring her therapy, parent training and counseling skills to the Granite Bay Speech clinic.

Heather’s approach to therapy is play-based, using positive reinforcement. She personalizes each therapy session to achieve maximum progress. She engages each child by focusing on their high-interest topics and utilizes a variety of activities. She welcomes parental involvement in sessions to achieve carryover of skills at home, in school, and in the community.

“I strive to use my knowledge of child development and early childhood education as a resource to support parents in their efforts to achieve optimal communication goals for their children. Along with my continued higher education and professional development, I look forward to collaborating and expanding my skills with the talented therapists at Granite Bay Speech.”

Kelli utilizes motivating and appropriate therapy materials for both in-person and telehealth therapy. She has experience with phonological disorders, articulation, expressive and receptive language disorders, and other speech and language impairments including learning disabilities, developmental delays, ADHD, and ASD. Kelli has worked with a wide variety of ages, including early intervention, preschool and elementary school children.

Kelli personalizes each client’s session to promote progress in their communication skills. She uses positive reinforcement and parent education to ensure carryover skills at home and throughout the client’s life. Kelli strives to establish a collaborative partnership with her clients and their families in order to achieve maximum progress and meet individualized goals.

As an RBT, she provided in-home behavioral therapy for children on the spectrum to increase expressive and receptive language among other cognitive functions, social skills, modifying challenging and severe behaviors, monitoring sensory needs, and improving the children’s overall quality of life and independence. In 2023, Noel was accepted into the Speech-Language Pathology Assistant program at CSU East Bay where she earned her license. Her fieldwork hours were earned at a pediatric outpatient clinic in San Jose where she worked with children ages 2-15 with a variety of diagnoses and diverse cultural backgrounds. Through evidence-based practices, neurodiversity affirming care, and play based (child-led) therapy, she implemented services to diagnoses such as: children with apraxia of speech, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), global development disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), mixed receptive-expressive language disorder, down syndrome, and a rare chromosomal disorder called Schuurs Hoeijmakers syndrome. She strongly believes in the mission to provide quality services, as well as the importance of collaboration between services in the developmental field and parents. Granite Bay Speech proudly highlights these beliefs, and Noel is excited to be a part of the team!

Outside of work, Noel has quite a few hobbies that she participates in and shares with her fiancé. She enjoys paddle boarding, roller skating, attending music events, hiking, skiing, line dancing, swing dancing, and is an avid movie goer.

During graduate school, Nicole gained invaluable experience in the inpatient rehabilitation setting at Fresno Community Regional Medical Center, where she supported adults with aphasia, cognitive difficulties, and swallowing issues following acute brain trauma. After earning her master’s degree, she joined Western Placer Unified School District, where she worked with students ranging from transitional kindergarten to fifth grade. She developed expertise in treating receptive and expressive language disorders, articulation and phonological challenges, and pragmatic difficulties. Nicole also provided intensive communication support to the district’s sole moderate-to-severe autism program, using aided language stimulation to support Gestalt language learners.

Passionate about client-centered therapy, Nicole is committed to advocacy, compassionate care, and her own professional growth. She strives to make therapy both creative and enjoyable to better facilitate communication development.

Outside of work, Nicole enjoys traveling, cooking and baking, gardening, reading, and binge-watching Outlander. She also shamelessly spoils her two cats, Rory and Prince Harry.