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Meet Lexi Hewitt, a valued member of the National Stuttering Association team. Learn more about their role and contributions. Lexi Hewitt Regional Chapter Coordinator - Southwest Region Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah Lexi Hewitt is a certified K-12 school counselor and has a National Clinical Mental Health Counseling Certification (NCC). She has been a member of the NSA since 2019 and volunteers as the NSA Exton Adults & Family Chapter Leader, which she started in 2023, as well as the Regional Chapter Coordinator for the Southwest Region. One of her passions is creating content to help the stuttering community grow. She has taught Chapter Leaders how to use Canva, runs the NSA Exton social media pages, and creates content for the NSA! She loves singing along to Taylor Swift, nerding out about TV shows, and being a person who stutters.

< Back James Hayden Speaker James is a brother, son, friend, and person who stutters from the New Orleans area. He is the author of Dear World, I Stutter: A Series of Open Letters from a Person Who Stutters. His work has been published by numerous outlets and organizations. He’s also presented at numerous universities and conferences. Outside of stuttering advocacy, he enjoys reading, traveling, spending time with loved ones, and consuming way too much Survivor related content. Previous Next

< Back Cha Holmes Speaker Cha Holmes is the proud dad of Clint Holmes, who resides in Atlanta, GA, with his beautiful wife Rebecca and their daughter Hollis. Previous Next

Join the Mt. Pleasant - Adult stuttering support group. Connect with others, share experiences, and access resources through the National Stuttering Association. Mt. Pleasant ADULT CHAPTER IN-PERSON MEETINGS SOUTHEAST REGION Official NSA Chapter - South Carolina State Welcome to the NSA Mt. Pleasant Chapter! The National Stuttering Association’s® motto: If You Stutter, You’re Not Alone®, is what our NSA Chapters are all about! Chapter meetings are open to people who stutter, family members of people who stutter, speech-language pathologists (SLPs), and anyone that wants to learn more about stuttering. Feel free to reach out to the Chapter Leader(s) to find out more about our chapter. We hope you will join us! How do you typically meet? In-Person Meetings What age group can attend? Adult What languages are spoken? English How much does it cost? Free! Meetings Here is information on the location and schedule of our meetings. Reach out to the Chapter Leader(s) for more information! Where? Panera Bread at the Tanger Outlets -- 5070 International Blvd Charleston, SC 29418 When? Meetings are held on the 1st Thursday of each month from 6:30-8:00PM Chapter Leaders Who leads the meetings? Mark Trifone Chapter Leader Get in touch! Marktrifone52@gmail.com (203) 914-7097 - Questions? We know that attending your first NSA Chapter meeting might be a little intimidating so we’ve tried to answer some of your questions! We know once you get there, you’ll be greeted by Chapter Leaders who have been in your shoes before and are happy to welcome you! ! Widget Didn’t Load Check your internet and refresh this page. If that doesn’t work, contact us. Testimonials Read more about the power of chapters and support groups from NSA members themselves! "When I attended my first conference in 2019. I was welcomed into this "stamily" with open arms and haven't left the bear hug since!" Lexi Hewitt Exton, PA Chapter "Other people who stutter are the best sources of support, love, and encouragement on your journey. Don't be afraid to reach out, no matter what stage you're at." Gina Waggott Author, Entrepreneur "This community has helped me rediscover myself as a confident and capable person who stutters." John Ontiveros Lorem, CA Chapter

Learn how Glenn Foster,a person who stutters, achieved career success. Get inspired by their journey. Systems Analyst Glenn Foster Briefly describe your daily job duties. I’m a systems analyst at The MITRE Corporation which is a non-profit group of federally funded research and development centers. I work on projects supporting the Federal Aviation Administration modeling the National Airspace System, analyzing future bottlenecks at airports and performing benefits analysis for planned airspace and airports improvements. Our research products are briefings and technical reports. I have worked at MITRE for 21 years. As a person who stutters, share the most challenging part of your job. As a person who stutters, I have always been extra anxious when delivering briefings. Giving briefings is an important part of my job where I communicate our work to an internal audience, federal sponsors, and sometimes at an aviation conference. My stuttering varies from day to day. I always try to take my time and say all that I want to say but it is challenging when there is a large audience. Over the years I have learned to be more open and accepting of my stuttering. Did you self-disclose your stuttering during the job hiring process? If so, how did you do it and how do you currently disclose your stuttering to unsuspecting co-workers? I did not self-disclose my stuttering during the job hiring process. Part of me now being more open about my stuttering is I’ve talked with my managers about it and they have been very supportive. My managers tell me I’m an effective communicator and that feels good. I sometimes “advertise” – disclose that I am a person who stutters – as I start to give a presentation. I often try to insert humor into my disclosure which relaxes me and seems to help the audience become more engaged. Describe how stuttering makes you a better, more valued contributor at work. I feel stuttering has helped me become a very good listener and that helps me be a good team member on projects because my listening skills translate into having an eye for detail. Also, I take extra pride in my briefings and spend more time preparing my slides and formulating a clear explanation of our projects. What is your proudest moment at your current company? (Does not have to be related to stuttering.) I joined Toastmasters to help me become more comfortable with my stuttering during presentations. I once entered a humorous speech contest in our Toastmasters club and won 3 rounds of competitions. The final round was in a large auditorium in front of 200 people. I didn’t place in the top 3 in that final round, but I was very proud to have gone through that experience. Throughout the contest rounds I found myself being more driven to win, rather than worry about my stuttering. That feeling was new to me and was only possible due to my avoidance reduction speech therapy. What are your long-term career aspirations? I am in the twilight of my professional career and thinking about retirement so my long-term aspirations are post-retirement. I have always loved spending time with children and hope to find a volunteer opportunity with them. Now that I am more open with my stuttering, I would also like to help children who stutter in some way. I have always enjoyed comedy and really enjoy working on my humorous speeches for Toastmasters so maybe I can continue that. What’s your best advice for people who stutter just entering the workplace and for those in a career striving to achieve greater success? I advise people to be as open as they can with their stuttering. I have found that my management has been very supportive when I have talked about my stuttering challenges and hopefully that would be true in most workplaces. Being open with your stuttering allows you to put more concentration on the content of the work and less on stuttering. I used to, and sometimes still do, attempt to speak while at the same time doing mental gymnastics trying to hide my stuttering. It can be exhausting! So, if you have an opportunity to disclose your stuttering from the beginning please do it. You can be an effective communicator and stutter at the same time.

< Back Evan Jordan Speaker Evan Jordan is a graduate student in Speech-Language Pathology at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and is a person who stutters. He enjoys participating in the stuttering community, and has been a co-chapter leader for the Lafayette NSA Chapter for the past year. He intends on pursuing a career in speech therapy and counseling using the experience he has gained through his own path to stuttering acceptance. In his free time, he likes to create, including drawing and working in landscaping. Previous Next

Join the Visalia - Kids stuttering support group. Connect with others, share experiences, and access resources through the National Stuttering Association. Visalia KIDS CHAPTER IN-PERSON MEETINGS SOUTHWEST REGION Official NSA Chapter - California State Welcome to the NSA Visalia Kids Chapter! The National Stuttering Association’s® motto: If You Stutter, You’re Not Alone®, is what our NSA Chapters are all about! Chapter meetings are open to people who stutter, family members of people who stutter, speech-language pathologists (SLPs), and anyone that wants to learn more about stuttering. Feel free to reach out to the Chapter Leader(s) to find out more about our chapter. We hope you will join us! How do you typically meet? In-Person Meetings What age group can attend? Kids What languages are spoken? English How much does it cost? Free! Meetings Here is information on the location and schedule of our meetings. Reach out to the Chapter Leader(s) for more information! Where? Visalia Hearing Center 2316 W. Whitendale Ave #A Visalia, CA 93277 When? Meetings are held on the 3rd Thursday of the month at 5:30 PM. Meetings will resume in January 2026. Chapter Leaders Who leads the meetings? Stacy Patterson Chapter Leader Get in touch! spattersonnsa@gmail.com 559-303-2846 - Questions? We know that attending your first NSA Chapter meeting might be a little intimidating so we’ve tried to answer some of your questions! We know once you get there, you’ll be greeted by Chapter Leaders who have been in your shoes before and are happy to welcome you! ! Widget Didn’t Load Check your internet and refresh this page. If that doesn’t work, contact us. Testimonials Read more about the power of chapters and support groups from NSA members themselves! "When I attended my first conference in 2019. I was welcomed into this "stamily" with open arms and haven't left the bear hug since!" Lexi Hewitt Exton, PA Chapter "Other people who stutter are the best sources of support, love, and encouragement on your journey. Don't be afraid to reach out, no matter what stage you're at." Gina Waggott Author, Entrepreneur "This community has helped me rediscover myself as a confident and capable person who stutters." John Ontiveros Lorem, CA Chapter

< Back Jacqueline Toscano Speaker Jacqueline Toscano, SLP.D. CCC-SLP, is a bilingual (Spanish/English) speech-language pathologist at Mass General Hospital in Boston, MA. She specializes in stuttering, cluttering, fluency disorders, and multilingual language development. Jacqueline teaches graduate students at the MGH IHP. Previous Next

Learn how Catherine Moroney,a person who stutters, achieved career success. Get inspired by their journey. Scientific Software Engineer Catherine Moroney Briefly describe your daily job duties. I study clouds and their impact on the climate system by analyzing satellite data. I also assist in the development of the algorithms that take in the raw satellite data and generate scientific products, analyze their performance, and write the official production code. As a person who stutters, share the most challenging part of your job. Participating in conference calls is challenging for me. I find it difficult getting my speech started when the people on the conference call are not aware that I’m trying to speak. Did you self-disclose your stuttering with co-workers, clients and or customers? I’ve been working with the same group of people for years so everyone knows that I stutter. I can’t hide it, nor do I try to. What is your proudest moment at your current company? Working on the same satellite for 25 years and making a substantial impact on its data products brings me a tremendous amount of joy. What’s your best advice for people who stutter striving to achieve career success? Don’t be afraid of stuttering in public and don’t change what you’re going to say based on fear of stuttering.

Learn how Bryant Anderson,a person who stutters, achieved career success. Get inspired by their journey. Recreation Leader Bryant Anderson College Park, GA Recreation Leader City of College Park Briefly describe your daily job duties. Customer service, arts program implementation As a person who stutters, share the most challenging part of your job. Talking with the public and co-workers both in person and over the phone. What are your long-term career aspirations? Eventually, be able to sustain myself with my graphic arts and literary arts business. Did you self-disclose your stuttering during the job hiring process? I didn’t, but it presented itself. What is your proudest moment at your current company? Being able to push through the process of stuttering to get the job done and gain confidence with public speaking. Describe how stuttering makes you a better, more valued contributor at work. It causes me to have a sense of humor and not take everything so seriously. What’s your best advice for people who stutter just entering the workplace and for those in a career striving to achieve greater success? Keep being you. Don’t hide yourself!

Join the Las Vegas - Adult stuttering support group. Connect with others, share experiences, and access resources through the National Stuttering Association. Las Vegas ADULT CHAPTER IN-PERSON MEETINGS SOUTHWEST REGION Official NSA Chapter - Nevada State Welcome to the NSA Las Vegas Adult Chapter! The National Stuttering Association’s® motto: If You Stutter, You’re Not Alone®, is what our NSA Chapters are all about! Chapter meetings are open to people who stutter, family members of people who stutter, speech-language pathologists (SLPs), and anyone that wants to learn more about stuttering. Feel free to reach out to the Chapter Leader(s) to find out more about our chapter. We hope you will join us! How do you typically meet? In-Person Meetings What age group can attend? Adult What languages are spoken? English How much does it cost? Free! Meetings Here is information on the location and schedule of our meetings. Reach out to the Chapter Leader(s) for more information! Where? Las Vegas, NV 89128 When? Our chapter typically meets on the first Monday of the month (except for holidays) at 6:30 PM. See below for our 2026 meeting calendar! Contact the Chapter Leader with any questions! January 5 @ 6:30 Timbers 4061 N Rancho Dr., Las Vegas, NV 89130 February 2 @ 6:30 Distill 6430 N Durango Dr., Las Vegas, NV 89149 March 2 @ 6:30 Streets of New York Pizza 7570 Norman Rockwell Lane, Las Vegas, NV 89143 April 6 @ 6:30 The Bagel Cafe 301N Buffalo Dr., Las Vegas, NV 89145 May 4 @ 6:30 Slater’s 50/50 7511 W Lake Mead Blvd., Las Vegas, NV 89128 No meetings in June and July August 3 @ 6:30 Dona Maria Tamales 3205 N. Teneya Way, Las Vegas, NV 89129 September 14 @ 6:30 Black Bear Diner 6180 W. Tropicana Ave., Las Vegas, NV 89103 October 5 @ 6:30 Cafe Zupa’s: 7521 W Lake Mead Blvd, Las Vegas, NV 89128 November 2 @ 6:30 Santa Fe Mining Company Bar and Grill 5021 N. Rainbow Blvd. Las Vegas, NV 89130 December - Holiday Get Together TBD Chapter Leaders Who leads the meetings? Michele West Chapter Leader Get in touch! LVNVNSA@gmail.com - - Questions? We know that attending your first NSA Chapter meeting might be a little intimidating so we’ve tried to answer some of your questions! We know once you get there, you’ll be greeted by Chapter Leaders who have been in your shoes before and are happy to welcome you! ! Widget Didn’t Load Check your internet and refresh this page. If that doesn’t work, contact us. Testimonials Read more about the power of chapters and support groups from NSA members themselves! "When I attended my first conference in 2019. I was welcomed into this "stamily" with open arms and haven't left the bear hug since!" Lexi Hewitt Exton, PA Chapter "Other people who stutter are the best sources of support, love, and encouragement on your journey. Don't be afraid to reach out, no matter what stage you're at." Gina Waggott Author, Entrepreneur "This community has helped me rediscover myself as a confident and capable person who stutters." John Ontiveros Lorem, CA Chapter

Meet Samaya Fonseca, a valued member of the National Stuttering Association team. Learn more about their role and contributions. Samaya Fonseca TAC Samaya is a passionate and accomplished sophomore at Timber Creek High School in Orlando, FL. She enjoys playing sports, reading, and expressing her musical talents as part of her school’s band program, where she plays both the trumpet and euphonium. Her dedication to the arts and athletics reflects her drive to excel and her appreciation for teamwork. Samaya attended her first National Stuttering Association (NSA) conference in Austin, Texas, in 2021, and this past conference marked her fourth. Over the years, the NSA has become an integral part of her journey, offering her a welcoming community and opportunities for growth. Samaya is proud to have completed her first year on the Teen Advisory Council (TAC), where she has worked to support and inspire other teens who stutter. As an active and enthusiastic member of the NSA, Samaya is committed to fostering connection and empowerment among her peers. With her dynamic personality, creative spirit, and dedication, she looks forward to continuing her contributions to the NSA community and making a lasting impact on others’ stuttering journeys.