Columbia Speech & Language Services Inc.

Speech Language Pathologists at Columbia Speech and Language Services

Seven speech language pathologists (SLPs) contract their services to Columbia. All are certified by the Canadian Association of SLPs and Audiologists and registered with the B.C. Association of SLPs and Audiologists.

Columbia is recognized as a premier site for graduate student interns to do practicum studies. For the past 10 years, Columbia's SLP consultants have been supervising masters students' practicums each summer. Many interns are from the University of B.C.'s School of Audiology and Speech Sciences, Faculty of Medicine while others come from Dalhousie, McGill, and the University of Western Washington.

SLPs from Columbia also give expert witness testimony in the Supreme Courts of B.C. and Manitoba. They assess people's speech and language problems and present their observations to the courts, often in personal injury and medical malpractice cases.

Jayme Carvey

Master of Science, Speech-Language Pathology, University of British Columbia
Bachelor of Science, Psychology, Brandon University
Diploma in Applied Linguistics, University of British Columbia

Jayme believes the ability to communicate is integral to our ability to function in the world and to build and maintain relationships. She finds the challenge of helping people communicate fulfilling and describes her work as "the best job to have." She says: "Providing support to people with communication impairments and seeing the impact it can have on their lives is pretty amazing."

Jayme's area of practice is acquired brain injury (pediatrics, teens and adult), fluency (kids, youth and adults), child language delay/disorder and articulation. Jayme's duties at Columbia also include supervision of the clinical internships of University of British Columbia graduate students.

Alisa Ferdinandi

Master of Science, Speech-Language Pathology, University of British Columbia
Bachelor of Arts, Psychology, McGill University

Alisa loves working with people and believes that communication is what connects us with others and thus impacts our quality of life. She has always had an interest in language acquisition and how people communicate.

Alisa's clinical teaching has included graduate students in speech sciences from UBC and other universities and she has been volunteering at the Pacific Brain Injury Conference each year from 2000 to 2006. Her areas of practice include: neurogenic speech and language disorders (i.e. acquired brain injury) for children and adults including aphasia therapy and therapy for those with traumatic brain injuries

Erika Innes

Master of Applied Science, Speech Language Pathology, McGill University
Bachelor of Arts, German and History

Erika loves language and has studied several. She realized how much there was to learn about language itself - how people learn it and how they lose command of it after a stroke or other type of brain injury. Today she feels lucky to work with so many interesting and inspiring people.

Erika has also recently become involved with clinical teaching of University of British Columbia masters students doing internships at Columbia. Her major area of focus is neurological rehabilitation for people with brain injuries.

Tracey Jalovec

Master of Science, Speech-Language Pathology, University of British Columbia
Bachelor of Arts, Psychology, University of British Columbia
Diploma in Applied Linguistics, University of British Columbia

Tracey believes that communication is central to all areas of our lives, and that by helping people to improve their communication, we help people improve the quality of their lives. She loves to travel and a highlight for her is meeting people from all over the world in Columbia's accent reduction program.

Her current primary practice areas are accent reduction, adult articulation, and voice.

Joe Newsted

Joe Newsted is a veteran speech-language pathologist who, since the early 1970s, has pioneered the use of intensive stuttering treatment in British Columbia. He developed the highly regarded program at the GF Strong Rehabilitation Centre that ran until the early 1980s. JoeÕs talents led him up the ladder of health care management. In the mid-1990s, Columbia Speech & Language Services Inc. founder Wendy Duke identified a gap in service for adults who stutter Ð effectively unfilled since the GF Strong program had stopped in the 1980s. She approached Joe, her former teacher, mentor and boss and together, they developed the intensive stuttering clinic still offered at Columbia Speech & Language Services Inc. Now semi-retired, Joe exclusively treats people who stutter. JoeÕs enormous popularity with his clients is a result of his unique ability to blend his experience, sense of humour and skills to provide a program that is both effective and fun.

Karen Salamon

Master of Science, Speech-Language Pathology, San Francisco State University
Bachelor of Arts, English Linguistics and French Literature, Hebrew University, Jerusalem

Karen says the highlight of her work is having the opportunity to work with amazing people, especially her clients and their families. She loves her hands-on work with language and linguistics and works mostly with people who have acquired brain injuries.

Karen does medical-legal assessments and supervises SLP practicum students from the University of B.C. most summers.

Ayasha Valji

Master of Science, Speech-Language Pathology, McGill University
Bachelor of Science, Psychology, University of British Columbia

Ayasha loves working with kids and learning languages - thus helping kids with language development seemed like the perfect career. "I love working with kids - probably because I'm a big kid myself! I love their energy and their unique way of looking at the world."

Ayasha grew up in Vancouver and loves to travel. She has lived in Australia, Holland, and Montreal. She recently returned to Vancouver after six years in Montreal, where she worked for the Riverside School Board for two and a half years. In addition to being an SLP, Ayasha is a rock climber and a professional swing dancer.

Ayasha works with a diverse pediatric population, including therapy for language difficulties, articulation difficulties, dyslexia, and hearing impairment.

Kathy Yoshida

Master of Science, Speech-Language Pathology, University of British Columbia
Bachelor of Arts, Child and Youth Care, University of Victoria

Kathy believes that communication is a human necessity - a fundamental part of life. She personally witnessed the tragedy of language loss after her grandparent's stroke and wanted to learn how this loss could be turned around. Since then, she has found the broad scope of her field fascinating. She especially loves to treat her clients in their homes, see their day-to-day lives, and help them find ways to communicate more easily.

Areas of practice and professional interests include speech and language rehabilitation for children and adults with acquired brain injury (i.e., traumatic brain injuries, strokes, etc.).

Alison Fleischaver, Office Manager

Alison is the first point of contact for people who phone Columbia Speech Language Services. Alison manages the Columbia office - keeping track of multiple details, requests, messages, phone calls, computers, and paperwork. She enjoys working with the SLPs and meeting clients, and says she especially likes the stuttering clinics because she loves to see the results.