Darleen O’Brien, MA, OTR
Darleen has been a pediatric occupational therapist for over 19 years. She has
been employed by NTS for 12 years. She is a graduate of UTMB in Galveston and received
her Master's Degree at TWU. Her passion has always been working with children
who have disabilities. She is NDT trained. Her special interests are
in the areas of tone management, serial casting, visual deficits,
handwriting and aquatic therapy. Darleen's hobbies and interest
centered on spending time with her family and nurturing her son and
daughter.
Ann LeGault, COTA
Ann has 13 years experience mostly in pediatric
therapy but also with adult rehab. She received her degree in
Pennsylvania in 1978. Continued education in pre-med at the University
of New Orleans. Having spent time off to raise her child, Ann has
endeavored teaching at nursing homes and as a volunteer in schools
helping children with needs. Ann enjoys reading, Tae Kwon Do and
volunteering at her child’s school. Ann and her husband teach Sunday
School to 2 ½ - 3 year olds every weekend. She works at the NTS West.
Karen Bueker, M.S., OTR, BCBA
Howdy! I’m Karen and I work at the NTS West location. I
received my B.S. in Community Health in 1993 from Texas A&M University.
I then attended Houston Community College in 1996 and became an
Emergency Medical Technician-Intermediate. In 2000, I graduated from
Texas Woman’s University with my M.S. in Occupational Therapy. I then
received a graduate certificate in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) in
2002 from the University of North Texas. In 2006, I completed the
University of Northern Colorado’s Preparatory Program in Speech Language
Pathology. Currently, I am in a horticultural therapy education
program. I plan to continue my education by applying for a M.A. program
in speech-language pathology.
Prior to joining the NTS family, I worked as an ABA trainer at an ABA
clinic and as an OT in out-patient and in-patient settings at a
rehabilitation hospital. I am SIPT-certified, a Board Certified
Behavior Analyst, an Interactive Metronome Certified Provider, a
Certified Irlen Screener, a Berard Auditory Integration Training (AIT)
Practitioner, and have completed Handwriting Without Tears Level I
Certification. I am trained in the Therapeutic Listening Program,
Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS), Rapid Prompting
Method-Level I (RPM), and management of visual deficits. I am also a
2007 graduate from the Disability Leadership Network of Houston Training
Program. My interests are in autism/ PDD, handwriting, horticultural
therapy, auditory-based therapies, sensory integration, and behavior
management. I enjoy spending time with my husband (David), my son (D.J.),
and my Black Labrador Retriever (Lilo).
Teresa de la Isla, MS, OTR
Teresa has been a
pediatric occupational therapist for over 12 years. She received her
Bachelor's degree from the University of Central Arkansas in Occupational
Therapy, and then later received her
Master's degree in motor control from the University of Houston.
Specialties include infant massage instructor, therapeutic listening, Neurodevelopmental Trained and
SIPT certified. Other areas of expertise include
handwriting, vision, feeding, autism and sensory integration. She
enjoys spending time with her husband and 3 year old daughter Gabriela.
Teresa works at the West location part-time.
Janis Nelson,
OTR
Janis was trained as a pediatric occupational
therapist on the east coast, graduating in 1979 from Downstate Medical
Center in New York. She helped to develop a pediatric outpatient
OT program in a community hospital on Long Island where she gained a
wide variety of experience. Later she worked for the local school district providing therapy to
elementary aged students. After moving to Katy in 1999, Janis gained
experience working with a pre-school population in a home health
setting. Her continuing education focus has been in the areas of NDT,
handwriting and sensory integration. Janis has been
with NTS west since August 2005 where she has thoroughly enjoyed working
with her NTS families.
Crystal Clegg, OTR
Crystal graduated with her
Master of Occupational Therapy degree from Texas Woman’s
University-Houston in 2007. Crystal draws her passion and inspiration
for OT from her brother who was born with Down syndrome. She completed
her pediatrics internship at Texas Children’s Health Center Cy-Fair and
is very excited to be joining the NTS team. She is looking forward to
pursuing certification in sensory integration, handwriting without
tears, and aquatic therapy to name a few. She has always had a desire to
work with children and is ready to continue her journey as an OT.
Emily Easley, CCC-SLP
Emily
has been a speech language pathologist for 3 years. She received both a
B.A. and M.S. in speech pathology from Baylor University and then moved
to Houston to work in Cypress-Fairbanks ISD. She has experience in
assessing and treating children with expressive and receptive language
disorders, autism, articulation disorders, stuttering and various
developmental delays. Emily and her husband, Matt, currently live in
Richmond with their two dogs.
Marilyn Adams MS, CCC-SLP
Marilyn has twenty + years experience in providing speech, language and
hearing therapy from infancy to adulthood. She has extensive experience
in autism, hearing impaired, deafness, Cerebral Palsy, strokes,
stuttering, language delay, articulation and phonemic awareness. She
also has experience with augmentative communication devices. Marilyn
received her Bachelor’s degree in Speech Language Pathology and
Audiology from Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana and her Master
Degree in Speech Pathology from Butler University, Indianapolis,
Indiana. She also worked as the State Consultant for the
Department of Speech, Language and Hearing for the State of Indiana.
She joined NTS Northwest, summer of 04 We are glad to have her
expertise, even if it is part time.
Stephanie Shurin, MA, CCC-SLP
Hi, I’m Stephanie and I work
part-time at the NTS west location as a speech pathologist. I received
my B.A.’s in Communication Disorders (2003) and Psychology (2004), and
my M.A. in Communication Disorders (2006) all from University of
Houston. This is my second year as a speech pathologist and I work full
time with Spring Branch ISD. I have experience with treating children
and adolescents with articulation, language, and pragmatic language
impairments. I recently moved to Katy with my husband of 1 ½ years and
my two cats.
Kim Cantu, Office
Manager
Hi I am Kim Cantu and my position here at NTS West
is office manager. I live here in Katy with my husband and two
children, Michael is 18 and Josh is 6. I have been in the medical
office field for 4 years now; I started at the University Of Houston in
the Optometry School and worked for some private practice doctors as
well. I have a medical billing and Coding certificate and plan on going
back to school in the future for a medical business degree.
Jennifer Parker, Tech
Jennifer
received her AA from Cy-Fair College in May ’06 and is currently an
undergraduate student at the University of Houston. She is set to
graduate in the summer of ‘08 with her BA in Communication Disorders.
She plans to attend graduate school at UH in the fall of ‘o8 and hopes
to become a Speech-Language Pathologist. Jennifer joined the NTS West
team in July ‘07. She loves working at NTS. The therapists and kids are
all fun to work with. The experience and knowledge gained thus far has
been great and she looks forward to learning more at NTS.
Barbara Nguyen, MA, CCC-SLP
Janalynn McClain, PTA
