Desiree Peña
Discipline: Communication Sciences Trainee
About:
I am a licensed speech-language pathologist who has lived in several states along the east coast. Prior to my professional transition to speech-language pathology, I taught high school Spanish and English as a Second Language (ESL). My role as the school’s ESL teacher was professionally transformative for me, as I learned to become an advocate for students who were learning English as well as to engage collaboratively with other teachers, counselors, and administrators to support better practices around differentiated instruction and student-tailored accommodations.
While living in Georgia, I worked as an assistant preschool teacher at a listening and spoken language program for children who are deaf or hard of hearing. In this program, I also served as an interpreter and translator for Spanish-speaking families. This role later expanded to include designing parent and teacher materials in the form of an online weekly newsletter that also served as a community resource for early interventionists in the state of Georgia.
I earned my master’s in Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of Georgia, where I treated individuals with a variety of speech and language disorders across the lifespan. As part of my graduate training, I completed a thesis project examining the impact of dual language intervention on a bilingual elementary student with autism spectrum disorder. Currently, I continue to work with preschoolers as well as school-age children in various programs in the greater Bangor area. Working alongside families and children, ages birth to five in particular, has galvanized my desire to improve advocacy efforts for providing early intervention, evidence-based services, and increased community inclusion for children with disabilities.
