Clinical Staff


	Jaclyn Capria, M.S., CCC-SLP, C/NDT. Ms. Capria completed her education at the State University of New York- College at Geneseo and Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professions. She received specific clinical training in understanding the connection between spoken and written language development and has experience with providing literacy assessment and intervention to children, adolescents and adults. Ms. Capria is currently a speech-language pathologist in a Boston school, where she provides assessment and treatment services within an inclusion model.
	Colleen Lahar, M.S., CCC-SLP, C/NDT. Ms. Lahar received her undergraduate degree at the College of the Holy Cross and completed her education in speech-language pathology at the MGH Institute of Health Professions. While at MGH, she received training in the assessment and treatment of both oral and written language disorders in children, adolescents, and adults. She currently works as a speech-language pathologist in a Boston-area school providing evaluation and intervention services for adolescents and young adults with a variety of speech and language disorders, as well as other physical, sensory, and/or neurological impairments. Ms. Lahar is experienced in treating disorders of receptive and/or expressive language, social skills, reading, articulation, fluency, and feeding/swallowing difficulties, as well as implementation of augmentative and alternative communication strategies. She is also certified in the Neuro-Developmental Treatment (NDT) approach.
	Steve MacCormack, M.S., CCC-SLP, Ed.S. Mr. MacCormack completed his training as a Speech-Language Pathologist at Boston University. He became certified as a Reading Specialist at Simmons College. He has worked as a Speech-Language Pathologist in the Boston school system. He currently holds the position of Literacy Intervention Specialist in a Boston school, in which he provides literacy assessment, treatment, and instruction. Mr. MacCormack focuses on the connection of oral language and literacy development in children. In his assessment and treatment, he addresses weaknesses in children’s language and reading-specific processes that can lead to oral and written language disabilities.
	Meghann Ridley, M.S., CCC-SLP. Ms. Ridley completed her training as a Speech- Language Pathologist and Reading Specialist at the MGH Institute of Health Professions. She has experience treating elementary and high school aged students presenting with a variety of spoken and written language disorders. Ms. Ridley is an active member in the state’s branch of the International Dyslexia Association and she is a member of the International Mind Brain and Education Society. Her clinical interests include spoken and written narrative development, executive functioning, vocabulary development, social pragmatics, auditory processing and literacy. Ms. Ridley has clinical experience in the private school, hospital, private practice and public school settings. Most recently, she worked at a large inner-city public charter school evaluating and treating children with expressive and receptive language disabilities, auditory processing disorders, autism spectrum disorders, phonological processing disorders, social pragmatic disorders, dyslexia and executive dysfunction. With her colleagues, she has designed workshops for teachers and parents that focus on strategies to break down curricula and assignments so that all students can experience success in the classroom and at home. Before becoming a Speech-Language Pathologist, Ms. Ridley worked at Penguin Publishing House in New York City. She hopes to some day publish a series of children’s books designed specifically for students with language disorders.
	Ann Shvartsman, M.S., CCC-SLP. Ms. Shvartsman completed her education at University of Massachusetts Amherst and MGH Institute of Health Professions with a specialty concentration in reading disorders. She has worked in various settings, including public schools and outpatient hospital clinic, conducting evaluations and providing individual and group therapy for spoken and written language disorders. She has experience helping children from toddlers to adolescence with a variety of speech and language disorders including delayed language development, articulation/phonological disorders, receptive and/or expressive language impairment, fluency disorders, language based learning disabilities, social language difficulties and reading problems. Ms. Shvartsman has been trained in Reading with TLC and Lively Letters (Telian-Cas Learning Concepts, Inc.) as well as Lindamood Phoneme Sequencing (LiPS®) Program for Reading, Spelling, and Speech.