About Us

Debbie has been with Speech Tree since August 2010 after taking several years off to raise her three children. She graduated from Utah State University in 1995 and finished her Master’s degree from San Jose State University in 1998. She loves her split role as SLP and mom.

Debbie specializes in toddler and preschool-aged kids, but enjoys children of all ages. She has a strong desire to encourage and empower parents to help their children reach their potential with speech and language skills. She offers practical, real-life suggestions for busy parents and is loved by her clients.

In her free time, Debbie enjoys spending time with her family and taking long walks.

Kylie received a bachelor’s from the University of Montana in 2015 and returned home to Pocatello to complete her master’s degree at Idaho State University in 2017. She happily joined the Speech Tree team shortly after graduation. During her education, she served as UM’s National Student Speech-Language-Hearing Association chapter president and continued as an active member throughout graduate school. She served as a graduate research assistant in Dr. Dan Hudock’s lab at ISU and participated as a student clinician for the Northwest Center for Fluency Disorders’ two-week intensive inter-professional stuttering clinic.

Professionally, Kylie is interested in language stimulation, preschool and school-age language, play-based therapy, speech sound disorders, fluency disorders, and inter-professional collaboration. Her goal is to help children build confidence through their communication skills and provide parents with practical ways to integrate speech and language learning opportunities into everyday activities.

In her free time, Kylie enjoys playing volleyball and tennis, hiking, attending concerts, trying new recipes, soaking in hot springs, and exploring everything else the Treasure Valley has to offer.

Laura received a B.A. from Boise State University in 2010 and her M.S. from Idaho State University in 2015. She was thrilled to join the Speech Tree team upon completing her degree. While earning a degree at ISU, Laura served as the Secretary for the Graduate Student Association, and was an active member of the National Student Speech Language Hearing Association. She was also a counselor at a camp for children who use augmentative and alternative forms of communication.

Laura’s professional interests include: augmentative and alternative communication systems, fluency, feeding and swallowing, play-based therapy, language stimulation, and apraxia of speech. Laura believes in targeting functional goals which will make the greatest impacts on families’ lives. She tries to generate practical activities and homework ideas so practice at home can be easily blended into regular activities.

Outside of the office, Laura enjoys hiking with her husband and dog, Rizzo, baking, trail running, sporting events, reading, and home improvement projects. She adores children and is passionate about helping them succeed.

Shari received both her undergraduate and graduate degrees in Speech and Hearing Science from Washington State University.  She has worked in a variety of settings, including outpatient hospitals, schools, early intervention programs, and private practice. With more than 27 years working as a speech-language pathologist, Shari has seen a significant trend in decreasing necessary therapy services for children that were once provided through public schools and health care coverage.  Shari feels strongly that all children deserve the opportunity to receive the help they need to enable them to communicate clearly.  Based on that belief, she started Speech Tree in 2006 as a sole provider.  Within a short time, her clinic grew to include multiple therapists and today has two locations.  Her philosophy is that children learn best when engaged in fun and rewarding activities. Shari has very high standards for making sure each therapy session maximizes outcomes yet does so in a way that is exciting and fun!  This philosophy is carried out by all of our staff, and it shows on the faces of children whom are excited to come to speech therapy. We instill confidence, pride and joy in learning to communicate at your very best potential!  Shari feels incredibly lucky every day that she gets to make a significant difference in the lives of children and their families.  Recently, a parent turned to Shari during a therapy session and said, “Thank you for helping my son learn how to talk. He can now say ‘I love you mamma.’”  There is no greater joy in the world than helping others have a voice.

In her free time, Shari can be found riding her mountain bike, skiing at Brundage or Bogus, and riding her horse, Flynt.

Shawna joined the Speech Tree team as the Office Manager in July 2015. She graduated from ISU with an A.A.S. in Health Information Technology and worked for a busy ophthalmologist for three years as a personal assistant and Electronic Health Records coordinator before joining the Speech Tree staff. Shawna is happy to be working with kiddos and their parents again as she spent many years working at North Star Charter School as a paraprofessional and then administrative assistant. She is also very excited to be a part of a team with such brilliant and talented women.

Shawna has raised two kiddos of her own and enjoys spending time with them whenever she can. When she is not zipping around town on her Suzuki VStrom, she keeps herself busy spending time with family and friends, working in her yard or baking goodies.