Howard D. Schwartz, Ph.D.
Dr. Howard D. Schwartz has been working as a speech-language pathologist since 1974. Dr. Schwartz has clinical experiences in the public schools, hospitals, university clinics and private practice. Since receiving his master's degree in 1974, Dr. Schwartz has always had a special interest in working with children and adults who stutter. Dr. Schwartz's first job after graduating Michigan State University was at the Child Guidance Clinic of Greater Winnipeg, (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada). In addition to providing speech therapy to children with a variety of disorders within the public schools, Dr. Schwartz also worked with high school students from other school districts on his own time after school.

In 1976 Dr. Schwartz began working at St. Boniface General Hospital. In addition to working with adults in acute care and long term rehabilitation, Dr. Schwartz initiated an outpatient stuttering therapy program for both children and adults. During 1977, Dr. Schwartz became the director of speech pathology at St. Boniface where he continued to work with adults who stutter while also expanding the pediatric outpatient program for children who stutter.

Dr. Schwartz returned to school in 1979 when he began his doctoral work with Edward G. Conture at Syracuse University. Dr. Schwartz was actively involved in Dr. Conture's fiberoptic examination of laryngeal function of adult stutterers and was later involved in Dr. Conture's investigation of the fluent speech of young children who stutter. From this grant, Dr. Schwartz with Dr. Conture's mentoring, investigated the potential differences among young children who stutter. This research resulted in a published study of subgroups of young stutterers (see Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 1988). Upon graduating from Syracuse, Dr. Schwartz worked at the SUNY College at Cortland (1984-86) where he had the opportunity to work with undergraduate students and begin to develop his undergraduate course in stuttering.

Since 1986, Dr. Schwartz has been on the graduate faculty at Northern Illinois University. Dr. Schwartz became the coordinator of Speech-Language Pathology in 1993 and continues in this position (2004). Dr. Schwartz developed an active research, clinical and teaching program in stuttering at Northern. During 1994 Dr. Schwartz traveled to Australia to participate as a visiting clinical associate at St. Vincent's Hospital, Sydney Australia. Dr. Schwartz was able to work with Dr. Megan Neilson and Dr. Gavin Andrews within an intensive therapy program. Since that time Dr. Schwartz has conducted a number of intensive stuttering therapy programs. To further his clinical skills Dr. Schwartz attended a program at the Albert Ellis Institute in New York and received the Primary Certificate for Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy during July, 2000. More recently Dr. Schwartz attended a training workshop dealing with the Lidcombe Program for Young Children Who Stutter (May 2004). Since that time, Dr. Schwartz has been using the Lidcombe Program to meet the needs of preschool children who stutter and their parents.

Dr. Schwartz has developed two advanced clinical practicum courses at Northern Illinois University that enable graduate students to work directly with him within the therapy room. In an effort to become more involved with professionals who work with stutterers in other countries, Dr. Schwartz became the membership chair of the International Fluency Association in 1996. Dr. Schwartz is the author of the book and video A Primer for Stuttering Therapy published by Allyn and Bacon in 1999 and is presently working on his second book, "A Primer On Communicative Disorders.

In 1987 Dr. Schwartz established the Institute for Communicative Disorders (ICD) in Naperville, IL his home community. The ICD began in a shared office with two psychiatric social workers and has continued to grow every year. During the second year of operation, the ICD was an office with a waiting room. As the ICD continued to grow, it became two offices and a waiting room with a fish tank. We then grew to three offices and, a waiting room, water cooler and fish tank.In December 2001 we completed renovation of our own building and moved our clinic to our own space. Sad to say, the fish tank is gone.


John E. Atchley, M.A. CCC-SLP
John E. Atchley specializes in working with school age children and adolescents who stutter. John received his B.S. degree from Northern Illinois University (NIU) and holds two masters degrees (Communicative Disorders, NIU and Educational Administration, Aurora University). As a graduate student within the Department of Communicative Disorders, John had the opportunity to work closely with Dr. Schwartz providing weekly evaluations for children and adults who stutter. In addition, John took two advanced courses in stuttering therapy where he had the opportunity to work with adults who stutter both in a long term behavioral program and an intensive stuttering therapy program. Upon graduation John began working for the Indian Prairie Unit School District #204 in Naperville, Illinois and the Institute for Communicative Disorders, Naperville in 1997. John holds a leadership position in the special education department at Neuqua Valley High School acting as the Assistant Department Chairman of Special Education. In his free time, John enjoys mountain-biking, snowboarding, and snow skiing.


Theresa Maciejewski, M.S.Ed, M.A. CCC-SLP/L
Theresa Maciejewski specializes in stuttering and speech and language disorders. Theresa is a graduate of Northern Illinois University's graduate program in Speech Language Pathology and Educational Administration and presently works as a Speech-Language Pathologist and Assistant Principal in the Lisle School District #202. Theresa is licensed by the state of Illinois, certified by the American Speech-Language Hearing Association, and Early Intervention certified. Theresa's previous experience includes working in a classroom with children with phonological problems as well as working in Dr. Schwartz's intensive fluency therapy program with adolescents. Theresa interned at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago where she worked with young stroke victims and patients with Traumatic Brain Injury.







Sarah K. Meyers, M.A. CCC-SLP/L
Sarah Meyers specializes in childhood speech and language disorders. She received her B.A. degree in Speech/Language Pathology from Augustana College and holds a masters degree in Communicative Disorders from Northern Illinois University. Sarah currently works for the Kaneland School District as a speech/language pathologist in the Early Childhood Program. In the Early Childhood Program she works with children diagnosed with autism, phonological disorders, childhood apraxia of speech, and developmental delays. In addition, Sarah often has the opportunity to supervise graduate students in speech-language pathology from a number of different graduate training programs within the state. Sarah has also worked with the Autism Community Connection in Naperville helping them provide summer social groups to children ages 3-5. Her experience includes writing social stories, creating visual schedules, and teaching and facilitating social skills through play. More recently Sarah has been working with Dr. Schwartz to establish the Lidcombe Program for preschoolers who stutter. Sarah is licensed by the state of Illinois and certified by the American Speech-Language Hearing Association.


Kristy Cesarone, M.A. CCC-SLP/L
Kristy Cesarone specializes in childhood speech and language disorders. Kristy has a bachelors degree in Speech and Hearing Science from the University of Illinois and earned her masters degree in Speech-Language Pathology from Northern Illinois University. Kristy is a full time speech-language pathologist in the Indian Prairie School District #204 working in an early childhood classroom and an elementary level self-contained classroom. Kristy works with a wide variety of children in these settings, including children with autism, developmental delays, and phonological disorders. Her previous work experiences included providing home-based early intervention services to children younger than three years of age. Kristy is licensed by the state of Illinois, certified by the American Speech Language Hearing Association, and has earned Early Intervention certification.