Age: 31

Pronouns: She/Her

Primary Gig: Speech Language Pathologist

On the Side: Business Owner

How long have you lived in Indianapolis? Born in Indianapolis, moved away for approximately 8 years and have been back now for 5 years.

Describe yourself in 100 words or less: I am very hard working, optimistic, and family oriented. I am passionate about everything that I do, both as a mom and in my career as a speech language pathologist. I am dedicated to helping children within our community find their voices. I work to support families while also networking with other speech language pathologists to continue to build my business and clinical skills. I bring creativity and fun to everything that I do!

How do you give back? I strive to help those in our community find their voice! As a speech language pathologist, I work with families and their children to find the most functional and effective ways to support communication. I participate in several professional development courses each year in order to provide research-based treatment approaches within my therapy sessions. I also volunteer and help fundraise for various speech and language-based organizations, such as Apraxia Kids.

Celebrity Doppleganger: Any of the Kardashians - people say my sisters and I look like the Kardashian sisters!

Who is a Jew who inspires you? Both of my grandmothers, Marilyn Schankerman and Doreen Gray, are exemplary Jews who were/are within our community. Both of my grandmothers were educators in the community. They taught me about the importance of a Jewish education and upbringing, introducing many Jewish traditions and customs to our family. I followed in both of their footsteps, choosing a career that allows me to support young children and stay connected within the educational system. I have also grown to understand the importance of passing along our family’s Jewish traditions to my own children and ensuring that my children are active members in our Jewish community.

How do you envision the Indianapolis Jewish community in the next 10 years? I hope to see my children heavily involved in the Indianapolis Jewish community in 10 years. I would love to see all the synagogues working together to provide fun and educational programming for our children as well as continued events for adults to network with one another.

What is one thing you look forward to as we come out of this Pandemic? I am really looking forward to traveling again! When the Pandemic began, we hunkered down with our 3-month-old daughter at the time and have not really traveled since. Now she is two and a half years old and we are ready to take her places!! Once our new little one gets to be a bit older and vaccinated, I foresee us taking a much-needed family vacation!

What is your proudest accomplishment in the past 10 years? Starting my own private practice is by far my proudest accomplishment in the past 10 years! When the Pandemic began in 2020, I decided to leave my job as a speech language pathologist at Riley Hospital for Children and open my own speech therapy private practice - the rest is history! I love being a speech therapist and learning how to be a businesswoman these past two years has been a fun and challenging new chapter in my career. I am very proud of where my practice is today, how far it has grown in such a short time and look forward to seeing where I can continue to take my practice over the next 10 years.

Any advice for younger professionals? I always knew I wanted to start my own private practice, but never thought I would do it this early in my career. My advice - take chances! Even if you are unsure if you will succeed, you never know what good will come out of you taking a big leap!

Anything else we should know about you? I married my high school sweetheart and we now have two children, a two-year-old daughter and two-week-old son! I am also the proud owner of UpWord Speech Therapy, LLC, providing speech and language services to children from birth-21 years of age.