We Shine A Spotlight on Katie Werner
JKI: Where are you from? What brought you to the Bay Area?
Katie: My roots are in Pennsylvania and Illinois. I moved to the bay area with my family when I was in 5th grade. I did my undergraduate work in San Diego and graduate work in Florida. After graduating I have been living and working in the San Francisco for over five years.
JKI: What got you interested in speech-language pathology?
Katie: I was always interested in working with children with disabilities. When I applied to college I wanted to be a special education teacher. At the time, I had been working as a nanny for a little boy who had Autism. He received home visit services from a speech pathologist and I discovered the field. As I watched the sessions and noticed the progress that was happening I realized Speech Therapy was a better fit for me. I loved the idea of becoming specialized in such an important part of life such as communication. I changed my major to Speech Language and Hearing Sciences before my first day of college and have never reconsidered that decision.
JKI: Why did you choose to work with children rather than adults?
Katie: I always thought I would work with children as that is where I have had the most experience. In my studies I found out I enjoyed working with adults as well. Both demographics are very rewarding in different ways. Ultimately, I decided to work with children because I love the impact you can make that will follow and support a child through their life.
JKI: What are your primary interests in the field and why?
Katie: My interests are continually evolving and often driven by my clients. This last year I was able to go to the American Speech Language and Hearing Association’s national convention, which is like a three-day music festival for Speech Language Pathology with many of the best minds in our field speaking and presenting. I went to many different lectures on a variety of topics and enjoyed them all. That is one of the things I love about Speech Pathology it has many facets. Current interests I am excited about include: feeding therapy, apraxia of speech, pragmatic skills, and AAC.
We love that there are so many facets in our field too and because of that it draws people with such diverse interests. We love having you as part of the team, Katie, and look forward to learning a long with you!