Teachers:
Alayna Marley – Alayna has her BA in Elementary Education with additional coursework in Early Childhood Education. Mother of a child with disabilities, Alayna has both the skills and first hand experience of raising a child with special needs. Alayna recently completed a 3 day NDT course.
email Alayna

Barbara Martin – Barbara has been providing early intervention services to Pierce County children for 20 years. She has extensive training in teaching children with vision impairments and has particular skills and a love for teaching children with Down Syndrome as well as medically fragile infants.
email Barb

Brigitta Cloud – Brigitta has her BS in Speech and Hearing Sciences. She has excellent skills in teaching children with language delays. Brigitta developed our Language Preschool programs and has been co-teaching those classes for 4 years. She is also a home-based teacher. Brigitta is working as one of our Speech/Language Pathologist Assistants under Julianne.
email Brigittta

Connie Lucas – Connie has her MA in Early Childhood Special Education and has worked in a variety of leadership positions related to early childhood and disabilities for 20 years. Connie received certification from the University of Washington in Infant Mental Health and has completed the Promoting First Relationships training. She heads up our Fostering Care Program which provides emotional and developmental support to infants and toddlers in foster care.
email Connie

Lori Carter – Lori is a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant who works as a teacher in our program. She is very talented with children with motor delays and sensory processing issues. Being a mother herself of a teenager with Sensory Processing Disorder, Lori has learned to be very creative in helping families find techniques to help meet their child’s sensory needs. She recently completed a 3 day NDT course. Lori also co-teaches with Marti in our weekly play groups.
email Lori

Marti Cates – Marti has her BA in Child Development and has been working in Early Childhood for 25 years. She is a certified trainer in Incredible Years Parent Training and is our resident behavior specialist.
email Marti

Pat Neil - Pat is a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant who has worked as a teacher in early intervention for 7 years. Prior to that, she owned her own childcare for 15 years. Pat enjoys working with children who need help in their fine motor and pre-academic skills.
email Pat

Peggy Perron – Peggy has her BA in Speech and Hearing and her MA in Education Administration. She has 35 years experience in public education as both a special education teacher and supervisor of special education. Peggy co-teaches in our Language Preschools and is a home based teacher as well. Peggy is working as one of our Speech/Language Pathologist Assistants under Julianne.
email Peggy

Tammi Farnese – Tammi received her MA in Psychology and then returned to school to get her AA in Early Childhood Education. She has worked in early childhood programs and social services for 15 years. Tammi recently completed training in Promoting First Relationships and works with children with developmental delays and in our Fostering Care program. Tammi also develops our bi-monthly newsletter.
email Tammi

Kami Qualls – Kami has her BA in Elementary and Special Education. Prior to joining our staff she taught early elementary special education for children with moderate to severe disabilities. Her background includes training and experience working with children with sensory and communication delays, as well as Autism. Kami also has a son in our program. She works part-time as a home-based teacher.
email Kami

Amber Englund – Amber holds her Bachelors Degree in Speech and Hearing Science with a Minor in Spanish. She speaks conversational Spanish and works with many of our Hispanic families. Amber is working as one of our Speech/Language Pathologist Assistants under Julianne.

Supervising Teacher:
Anna Hamlin – Anna has her MA in Early Childhood Special Education and 9 years experience in early intervention. She has broad, well-rounded experience and additional training in working with children with a wide variety of disabilities including Autism, Down Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, deafness and vision impairment.
email Anna

Speech/Language Pathologists:
Julianne Brian, MA, CCC-SLP – Julianne has been a pediatric Speech Language Pathologist for 20 years in the Puget Sound Area. She has her own caseload of children and is supervising our three SLPAs.

Nikole Spenny, MA, CCC-SLP – Nikole works full-time for Sumner School District, but sees a few clients for us in the White River and Sumner School Districts.

Accountant/Office Manager:
Nancy Scott – Nancy started her career with her MA in Science Teaching and has taught at both high school and college levels. She later returned to school to become a Certified Public Accountant. We thought this job was a perfect blending of her accounting and teaching backgrounds! Nancy shows remarkable talent in doing the most mundane tasks to the most challenging such as maintaining our books and preparing our monthly financial reports.
email Nancy

Executive Director
Candy Watkins – Candy has her BA in Deaf Education and has been working in early intervention for 17 years. Recognizing a community need, Candy founded A Step Ahead in 2001 and has been functioning as its Executive Director since that time. Candy also continues to provide services to a small number of children as well as serving on community committees.
email Candy