NWACS Board Members

 
 

Join the NWACS Board:

NWACS is run completely on volunteer power! Scroll down to read about our amazing volunteers who make this organization possible.

“Many hands make light work.” We are growing and need more help! All incoming board members receive mentorship and support from fellow board members. We are actively seeking AAC Users, BIPOC, and other marginalized individuals. Click here to explore our open positions. We would love to have you!

Have a question, an idea or request, simply want to connect, or want to get involved? Send us an email.

Current Board Members:

SLP means ‘speech-language pathologist’; OT means ‘occupational therapist’

President:

Jo Ristow

SLP (she/they)

  • Jo is a speech-language pathologist based out of Seattle and owner of Chat NW. She also serves as a part-time lecturer at the University of Washington. She has 12+ years of experience in the field with a specialty in Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC). Jo has worked and consulted across multiple settings including outpatient therapy, Autism Centers, birth-to-three centers, schools, inpatient units, and private practices. Her passion is supporting those who use AAC to

    • connect with the people important to them,

    • advocate for the things that are important to them, and

    • communicate in the environments that are important to them. 

    She presumes potential and emphasizes multi-modal communication. She also strives to provide neurodiversity-affirming, anti-ableist supports and education. The work and joy of communication is meant to be shared! Jo lives in Seattle with her partner and two children. She spends her (rather scarce) free time reading, hiking, rock collecting, and learning.

photo of Molly's face with grass and evergreen trees in the background

Co-Vice President:

Molly Menzie

SLP (she/her)

  • Molly graduated with a master’s degree in speech-language pathology from the University of Utah in 2012. She is a bilingual pediatric SLP. She works in outpatient pediatric and early intervention settings. Her interests include augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), bilingual language development, and neurodiversity-affirming practices. Molly has been a volunteer with NWACS since 2019 and joined the board in 2022. Molly believes in

    • collaboration,

    • a strengths-based approach,

    • parent/caregiver coaching,

    • communication and body autonomy,

    • honoring all forms of communication, and

    • connection over compliance.

    In her spare time, Molly likes to spend time with her husband and two kids, snowboard, hike, go camping, and listen to podcasts.

photo of Camille

Secretary:

Camille Stewart

SLP (she/her)

  • Camille is a bilingual (Spanish/English) speech-language pathologist. She has worked with both children and adults in a variety of settings including home health, outpatient, inpatient rehab, and acute hospital settings. She now works as the Pediatric Solutions Consultant for Tobii Dynavox.

    Camille is passionate about empowering individuals to find communication tools that can help them better communicate with friends, family, and the community and to reach their own communication goals. She learned even more about AAC and became an even bigger advocate for it when her dad was diagnosed with ALS and began using his own AAC system.

    Camille is excited to join the NWACS community here in Washington! In her spare time, she enjoys hiking and backcountry skiing with her husband David, and cattle dog mix, Poppy.

 
photo of Mary's face

Co-Treasurer:

Mary Rostad

(she/her)

  • Mary is a medical administrator with 20 years of experience working collaboratively with clinical professionals who provide assistive technology and augmentative alternative communication services to those who need them. She is passionate about 'clearing the way' for clinicians to do their best work by resolving administrative, regulatory, and compliance barriers.

    Mary joined the NWACS board as Treasurer to further this passion. In this role, Mary can leverage her extensive experience with financials, budgets, and taxes to provide meaningful support to NWACS & the greater community of complex communicators. In this way, Mary feels she is a part of the great work these clinicians do.

    Mary lives in Bothell with her husband, two children, and their dog. She enjoys kayaking, camping, hiking, skiing, snowshoeing, mountain biking, dirt biking, and just about any other outdoor sport that can be done in the woods, mountains, or seas. When she's stuck at home, Mary also enjoys reading and watching a good movie or two with her family.

photo of Liz

Co-Treasurer:

Elizabeth Whitaker

OT (she/her)

  • Liz is currently an occupational therapist (OT) in the Everett School District, where she works primarily with elementary-aged students. She is involved in coordinating professional development events for the OT/PT department in Everett. Liz is passionate about interprofessional collaboration, specifically working with SLPs to support students with complex communication needs. She is continuing to learn about AAC through work and looks forward to deepening understanding through involvement with NWACS.

    Prior to attending graduate school, Liz lived abroad teaching English in China and worked in a community mental health child & family office as support staff. Liz enjoys reading, doing puzzles, crocheting, relaxing with her dog, and spending time with her niece.

Photo of Pixie (shoulders up). They are wearing a skiing helmet and face mask.

AAC User Advisor:

Pixie Sky

(they/them)

  • Pixie is autistic and nonverbal, a full time AAC user. They started drawing, when very young, to try to communicate with people. Pixie has also used emojis, home sign, printed communication cards, and American sign language as well as communication boards and speech generating AAC devices. They get frustrated with AAC device vocabularies sometimes because they’re all made for children, which limits their communication to child-appropriate words even though Pixie is an adult.

    Pixie loves skiing with a Special Olympics team, and does many activities with Outdoors for All, like rock climbing, bicycling, kayaking and hiking.

    Pixie is an artist at Vibrant Palette, an art studio specifically for disabled artists. They also really like animals and have 3 guinea pigs, 2 cats, and a Service Dog in training.

 
Photo of a light-skinned woman's face smiling at the camera, she has shoulder-length curly brown hair, and a blue background
  • Marci is a speech language pathologist who specializes in the area of Augmentative Alternative Communication. With over 25 years experience, she has worked in private and public schools as well as in private practice in Seattle and in the Boston area. She currently runs the Augmentative Alternative Communication program at Seattle Children’s Hospital and provides AAC assessment, training and treatment for children of all ages. Marci also runs Augmentative Alternative Communication Services (AACS), her private practice that provides school training, consultation and in-home AAC training and treatment. She joined the NWACS board in 2020. In her other life, Marci is an avid hiker, camping enthusiast and yoga practitioner who you can find outside as much as possible, searching for agates on local beaches, breathing in the green of the trees or perhaps marveling at the many colors of the Seattle sky.

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Blog Coordinator:

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Fall Conference Coordinator:

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Fundraising Coordinator:

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Marketing Coordinator:

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black and white photo of Cass from the shoulders up; her hair is pulled up and  she is wearing dangling earrings

Outreach Coordinator:

Cass Griffin Bennett

(she/her)

  • Cass Griffin Bennett is an autistic and ADHD self-advocate. She is a parent of multiple autistic children, including a young multimodal communicator. She knows firsthand that AAC can change lives. Cass started her youngest child on robust high-tech AAC at age 2. She stepped into the Outreach Coordinator role because she wishes she had known about NWACS when first embarking on this AAC quest. She hopes that sharing her family’s Toddler AAC experience will decrease gatekeeping. Cass wants to empower parents to take an active role in their child’s AAC journey.

    Cass is passionate about early access to robust high-tech AAC, collaborative problem-solving, equity, neurodiversity, and inclusion. Her guiding goal in parenting is to raise her children to be their own best self-advocates. Cass has a career background in professional services business development and a degree in Psychology.

 
photo of Grace

Social Media Coordinator:

Grace Clark

SLP (she/her)

  • Grace Clark, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, has 12 years of experience as a Speech-Language Pathologist. She is a researcher at Montclair State University, where she studies language and literacy development in children on the autism spectrum who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC).

    Grace is passionate about empowering children and fostering communication access through evidence-based practices. She is committed to bridging the gap between research and practical applications, striving to make a meaningful impact in the field of AAC. 

    Outside of work, Grace enjoys skiing, playing tennis, and camping with her husband and 2 boys. 

photo of Alison's face

Volunteer Coordinator:

Alison Damboise

SLP (she/her)

  • Alison is a Speech-Language Pathologist in the Snohomish school district. She is also the owner of a private practice (Lake Stevens Speech Language and AAC, PLLC). Alison has a special interest in working with autistic children and children with complex communication needs. She is passionate about learning, sharing resources, and connecting with and supporting families. As a new board member, Alison is looking forward to collaborating with other AAC professionals, AAC users, and families to help support authentic and autonomous communication for everyone. In her spare time, she loves hiking, going for walks, reading, and spending time with her husband, two kids, and Collie mix.

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Website Coordinator:

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Photo of a light-skinned woman's face smiling at the camera in front of a dark background, her hair is pulled back and she is wearing small earrings.

Web Team Coordinator:

Cassandra Stafford

SLP (she/her)

  • Casey is a Speech-Language Pathologist and Assistive Technology Professional. She has a private practice (Vlinder Communication Therapies) in the Seattle area. Casey works primarily with children. She also works with teens and adults with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities. She joined the NWACS board in 2015 to help with website and social media duties. Casey enjoys reading, baking, crocheting, card-making, and doting on her nieces!

Photo of a  light-skinned woman's face smiling at the camera, she has short gray hair.

Member At Large:

Janice Murphy

SLP (retired)

  • Janice has worked as a Speech-Language Pathologist for over 40 years with the bulk of her experience in Idaho, Alaska, and Washington public schools. She retired from the Seattle School District in 2013 when her granddaughter was born with cerebral palsy. With very little experience in Augmentative-Alternative Communication (AAC), Janice has been learning what she can about low- and high-tech AAC systems and providing her granddaughter with communication support. In her spare time, she can be found walking Green Lake, at the gym or sitting around her kitchen table with friends.

image is a photo of Rachel

Member At Large:

Rachel Riback

SLP (she/her)

  • Rachel is a speech-language pathologist currently working at an elementary school in Washington, DC. She has a background in elementary and special education and completed graduate school for Speech Pathology at the University of District of Columbia in 2017.

    Rachel works with students who have various speech and language disorders including articulation, fluency, expressive, receptive, and pragmatic language deficits. Many of the students that she works with have complex communication needs and benefit from AAC devices or support to help them communicate throughout their day. These tools have proven to be extremely effective for many of the nonverbal or unintelligible students that she works with and she is very passionate about learning more about AAC, using it with her students, and spreading/ sharing awareness!

    In her spare time, Rachel enjoys traveling, sports, going to museums, live music, reading, and spending time with friends and family. She is very excited to collaborate with this group to grow her knowledge, spread her passion, and help make sure that everyone can have the voice that they deserve!

 
Photo of a  light-skinned woman's face smiling at the camera, she has short, dark with bits of gray, hair and is wearing hoop earrings..

Member At Large:

Kathy Smith

SLP (retired) (she/her)

  • Kathy is a retired Speech-Language Pathologist with over 40 years in the field of Augmentative-Alternative Communication (AAC). While she worked with children through adults over the course of her career, her experience has been primarily with adults with complex communication needs. Kathy has been involved with NWACS almost since its inception and served as President for many years. She remains active in the field of AAC through volunteer work, mentoring, and her work on the NWACS board. She also volunteers in the English As A Second Language program at Seattle Public Library. Kathy is the proud Grammy of four grandchildren and resides in the Seattle area with her husband. She is an avid reader, loves to knit and go out for coffee!

 
 

Join the NWACS Board

Benefits of serving on the NWACS Board include:

  • Opportunities to connect and network with colleagues and mentors in the field of AAC

  • Learn and grow your knowledge in AAC/AT

  • Complimentary conference registration for volunteering in needed roles

  • Flexibility and support from fellow board community

  • For professionals: an activity to add to your curriculum vitae

Click on role descriptions to learn more about responsibilities of serving on the NWACS Board.

Interested?

  1. We encourage you to first look at our Mission, Vision, Values and explore the NWACS website to learn more about our organization.

  2. Read the role description(s) for positions you are interested in.

  3. Contact us to let us know your interest.

  4. We will invite you to attend a board meeting so we can meet, answer your questions, and you can get a glimpse of us in action.

  5. When you are ready to commit, complete the Becoming an NWACS Board Member form and send us an email (info@nwacs.info).

Open Positions:

All incoming board members receive mentorship and support from fellow board members. If you are interested, or have any questions, please contact us!

recruiting

Recruiting for: NWACS Fall Conference Coordinator

Role Description

We are actively recruiting for a Fall Conference Coordinator.

(Your image here.) NEW BOARD ROLE Our AAC Community needs YOU!

Recruiting for: NWACS Marketing Coordinator

Role Description

We are actively recruiting for a Marketing Coordinator.

We are also recruiting for the following roles:

Blog Coordinator

Role Description

Fundraising Coordinator

Role Description

Website Coordinator

Role Description

(Your image here.) NEW BOARD ROLE Our AAC Community needs YOU!

Web Team Coordinator

Role Description