Team Feature: Lead Therapists

Oct 15

Megan has been an occupational therapist for about 5 years in 2022 and is now one of the Lead Therapists at Tilton’s Therapy. She has experience working as an OT in outpatient pediatrics and with adults in the acute care setting. She received a Bachelor of Science in Community Health Science and a Minor in Psychology from the University of Nevada, Reno before completing her Master of Science in Occupational Therapy at Touro University Nevada.

Born and raised in Northern Nevada, Megan has lived in Nevada her entire life, all the way through college and graduate school. She was a member of Sigma Kappa Sorority and helps advise the alumnae chapter at Nevada.

“I love watching all my favorite pro and college sports teams from New York and Nevada (Go PACK!)”

In her free time, Megan enjoys skiing, exercising at the gym, playing soccer and basketball, spending time with friends and family, and attending music festivals

Growing up with parents who were in the medical field as a nurse and a paramedic, Megan was always drawn to become part of the medical field. When she discovered occupational therapy during college, she knew that it was perfect for her.

“I love that OT is very personal and client-centered and that every client that you treat is unique.”

Megan started as a member of the Tilton’s Therapy team in 2020 and now serves as one of our Lead Therapists.

What Megan expresses she loves most about OT is helping clients develop and regain functional skills in order for them to participate in their day-to-day activities and things that they love. She connects with the client-centered approach to therapy and really enjoys working on functional skills.

In the past, Megan was a fieldwork educator for a COTA student and has had many college interns shadow her and learn all about OT. Megan is a member of AOTA and attends local events to support the kids she treats when possible.

Heather graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno in 2017. She has been practicing in pediatrics since graduating four years ago and in outpatient pediatrics for three years. Heather was originally drawn to the profession after working as a nanny to a child who has Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Because of this opportunity for her to observe and witness his speech therapy appointments, she knew it was the right path for her.

During the course of her career thus far, Heather has not yet had the opportunity to take on any students but looks forward to that in the future. Heather loves working with children on their social skills and feels that mobile therapy is an awesome way to target these skills as parents and siblings can participate.

She has also grown to love using Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) both high and low-tech to assist minimally verbal significantly unintelligible children to communicate with those around them. Heather has begun taking classes to expand her knowledge in regard to feeding as this has shown to be a major need for many of the children on her caseload.

Originally, Heather was born in Orange County but was raised in beautiful Northern Nevada. Living in this area, Heather feels lucky enough to be surrounded by hiking right outside her door. She spends a lot of time in Truckee and Lake Tahoe with her two dogs. At home, Heather loves being able to make fresh juice, bake treats, and try new recipes, which she says, “my boyfriend and dogs appreciate!”

Heather loves the ability to have access to a child’s home and make therapy as functional as possible for them and their family. The buy-in from parents is significantly higher with mobile therapy than what she has previously seen in outpatient therapy settings. She also finds that the ability to collaborate with her team remotely through a mobile app has been an awesome way to communicate!

Renée obtained her Bachelor’s in Psychology from Nevada State College in Henderson, NV before moving to Reno, NV to pursue a Master’s in Speech-Pathology and Audiology. She also completed a post-baccalaureate year to acquire additional credits needed to begin the Master’s program at the University of Nevada, Reno. Her combined experience in the field amount to about 17 years, and Renée has worked as a Speech-Language Pathologist for nearly four years and is now one of our Lead Therapists at Tilton’s Therapy.

Renée has experience working in the school setting, Early Intervention, a quick rotation in the acute care hospital setting, and outpatient clinic for both adults and pediatrics, as well as her current role in mobile therapy.

Starting out in the Clark County School District, Renée worked as a paraprofessional in special education classrooms. This work led to a teacher referring Renée to families who needed ABA therapists, which she did for five years. While she gained skills in behavioral interventions, she was hired as a public service intern until she became a developmental specialist working in Early Intervention in Las Vegas. During this time, she was working with a variety of other professionals, including occupational therapists, speech therapists, physical therapists, and nutritionists. Renée truly loved providing the language therapies and learned everything she could from her colleagues. She has been a member of the Tilton’s Therapy team since July 2020.

The versatility of the profession is one aspect Renée loves most about speech therapy. Because she is able to work with individuals throughout the lifespan (birth through geriatrics), there is so much that therapists can do.

“Most people think we work on just speech and/or language skills. Not only do we target those skills, but we also work on SO much more like cognitive skills, independent activities of daily living, voice disorders, fluency (stuttering), pragmatic skills (social skills), and feeding and swallowing, just to name a few!”

Renée has worked with individuals with Autism since she started her path to becoming a speech-language pathologist and she feels confident working with these individuals. Additionally, she is a graduate of the Nevada Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (NvLEND) program, which is a leadership program through the University of Nevada, Reno’s NCED (Nevada Center for Excellence in Disabilities). This program is for a variety of professionals, advocates, and individuals who work with or are individuals that are neurodiverse. The goal of the program is to improve the health of individuals with autism and other disabilities by preparing practicing professionals, parents, and graduate trainees to assume leadership roles in their respective fields by developing high levels of interdisciplinary clinical competence.

Renée was born just outside of Chicago (“go CUBBIES!”) in Indiana but lived in Las Vegas, NV for the majority of her life. She moved to Reno in 2015 and has had no regrets since. Originally she was concerned about herself as a desert dweller moving to a colder climate, but she feels it has been refreshing to enjoy four seasons each year. Reneé appreciated Northern Nevada for many reasons: the weather, Lake Tahoe, family-friendly activities, a laid-back mountain atmosphere, and overall, the kind demeanor of the people in the community.

In her spare time, Renée loves to spend time outside when the weather is nice — especially in her favorite place, Lake Tahoe. She also enjoys camping, beach days, and spending time with her family. She, along with her husband and son, enjoys going on bike rides and hikes.

“We play a LOT of games and it gets pretty competitive (see: married to a twin who is the MOST competitive person I have ever met. He brings it out in me!)”

Aside from work, Renée is passionate about photography and cooking. Last year, her New Year’s resolution was to improve her baking skills (sourdough bread, anyone?), and this year, her resolution is to learn new cooking techniques and recipes. Renée stated, “so far, so good!”

Renée enjoys providing services to her patients in their natural environment and educating parents in real time while she is providing treatment, which can prove difficult in other settings. She also enjoys having a short break in between patients, which allows her to decompress when needed, or self-reflect on how each session went and assess what worked or didn’t work to improve her skills.