Speakers
& Hosts

Adam is  a person who stutters; the author of ‘Tremulous Hinge’ (University of Iowa  Press, 2017), winner of the Iowa Poetry Prize; and an Assistant Professor of  English at the United States Naval Academy. He often writes about stuttering  and deeply values his involvement in stuttering communities.

Aidan is  the co-Founder and Executive Director of SPACE, a Canadian stuttering  nonprofit. He has been collaborating with the stuttering community as an ally  for almost 15 years, and worked for over a decade in New York as a theatre  maker and arts educator.

Andrew  is an archivist who, as a manager, mentor and teacher, enjoys supporting the  professional development of people in his field. He is a person who stammers,  a trustee of 50 Million Voices, and a long-term member of STAMMA and of the  LGBTQ+ stuttering network Passing Twice.

Angélica  is a person who stutters and the director of Centro Especializado en Tartamudez (Specialised Center for Stuttering). She is a speech-language  pathologist currently pursuing a PhD at Florida State University under the  mentorship of Dr. Constantino. She facilitates monthly Spanish-language  support groups for parents through FRIENDS, a U.S.-based organisation for  kids who stutter.

Barbara  is a 'retired' specialist Speech and Language Therapist who is now studying  part-time at Birmingham City University, researching views of adults who  stammer about intervention(s) and support. As someone who does not stammer,  she chooses to work with support from a group of advisors who all live with  stammering.

Sgt Ben Collier is a Registered Nurse with the Royal Army Medical Service, where he is a teacher and instructor.

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Ben says, “I am passionate about tackling the stigma, prejudices and discrimination people who stammer experience, as well as making the military, healthcare careers and patient-focused care more inclusive and supportive”.

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Ben is  a person who stammers who works as a Trainee Clinical Psychologist at the  University of Surrey. He works across multiple settings in the NHS.     Ben has experience designing and co-facilitating the self compassion course  at City Lit and supporting the Acceptance and Commitment Therapy courses. He  has also conducted two research projects into the benefits of self-compassion  for people who stammer.

Bevin  is a person who stutters and curator of the blog 'My Stutter and I', where  she shares her experiences and poetry about being a person who stutters. She  believes in the power of self-acceptance, honest storytelling, and creating  space for stuttering voices to be heard, valued and celebrated exactly as  they are.

Bhupinder  is a Senior Officer in the Civil Service within the education sector. She  runs the Coventry Stammerers group and co-runs the STAMMA Young People’s  Network. She also has a vlog on YouTube and TikTok called ‘The Stammering  Life’, where she shares her experience of being a person who stammers.

Bob is  a highly experienced public speaker and has addressed a wide range of people,  from offenders to business leaders, in council chambers to theatre stages.  

Bob is a qualified Performance Coach, Life Coach and is trained in Solution  Focused Therapy, Acceptance & Commitment Therapy and Neuro-Linguistic  Programming. He has been leading the Doncaster support group for over 20  years.

Cameron  has stuttered since he could talk. He has a PhD on the moral subtext of  Aboriginal oral history and teaches creative writing at Adelaide University,  where he is also part of a small research team looking at improv as the basis  for therapy for young people who stutter.

Carolyn  is a person who stammers who has worked as a Speech and Language Therapist  (SLT) with adults who stammer since 1979. She is a mindfulness teacher and  has developed mindfulness courses for people who stammer and SLTs. She also  teaches on an Acceptance and Commitment course for people who stammer, and  teaches SLTs how to use this approach with clients.

Christine  (she/her) is from London and is a former STAMMA trustee. She is an admin of  the Women who Stammer Facebook group and co-coordinator of the Women's  Stammer Online support group. She enjoys participating in the online  stammering community, particularly supporting women who stammer.

Claire  is a counter-fraud expert and academic, as well as a seasoned international  keynote speaker covering fraud, disability and inclusion.    

In 2014, Claire also founded STUC (Stammerers Through University  Consultancy). Claire has recently started combining her passions to look at  the impact of stammering on fraud controls and vice versa.

Claire  lives in Derby and has worked in education. She is a member of the Women who  Stammer online support group, and volunteers with the STAMMA Minecraft club  for young people who stammer.

Dawid is passionate about helping people who stammer. He has appeared on television and radio over 100 times, advocating for greater awareness of stammering. His YouTube channel about stammering has over 1800 subscribers.

Debbie  is a Speech and Language Therapist who has spent 30 years working with  children and adults who stammer. She has always been fascinated by what  allows people to be authentic and reach their potential and what gets in the  way of this. She is trained in Internal Family Systems, Hypnotherapy,  Compassionate Inquiry, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Neuro-Linguistic  programming.

Femke  is a stuttering specialist from The Netherlands, the co-owner of private  practice Logopediepraktijk Tilburg, and founder of a stuttering team  consisting of four specialised Speech and Language Therapists (SLTs). She  co-founded Stotterconnect, an organisation dedicated to Camp Dream. Speak.  Live and the training of SLTs. She is a stammering ally.

Geneviève  is a person who stutters and PhD candidate in speech-language therapy at  Université de Montréal researching stigma reduction through media  representation. As part of her PhD, she co-produced 'We Are the Audience'  with stuttering organisation SPACE. She also co-founded Voice and Media, a  research-creation initiative on stuttering representation.

Gina is  a writer and former BBC professional with a background spanning broadcasting,  journalism and disability advocacy. She is a person who stammers, and is  active in several nonprofits serving the global stuttering community and its  allies. She is currently the Finance and Operations Executive at 50 Million  Voices.

Hanan  is an electronics engineer, working presently as a Quality and Regulatory  Management Consultant. He is a person who stutters, has been researching  stuttering for many years, and is author of the book 'Stuttering: from Shame  and Anxiety to Confident Authenticity'. His current primary interests are  equanimity, blues and stuttering.

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Hilary is the lead Speech and Language Therapist at Liverpool’s Willy Russell Centre for Children and Adults who Stammer. She has a special interest in therapy and self-help groups for people who stammer, and she has played a key role in organising three previous STAMMA/BSA conferences.

Ian is  a trustee of Empowering Voices, a UK charity that helps stammerers control  their speech using a costal breathing technique. He says, "I have used  and taught this technique for over 20 years. I am a supporter of STAMMA,  serving as an occasional panel member at stammering awareness events".

Jakub is  a teacher who has been working at an independent school for over six years.  He holds an undergraduate degree in mathematics from the University of  Cambridge and has been pursuing a degree in Psychology. Jakub hopes to  transform the way that we view stammering.

Jane is  the CEO of STAMMA. Before joining STAMMA she founded the organisation CALM  (Campaign Against Living Miserably).

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Joeri  is a Speech and Language Therapist (SLT) and stuttering specialist from The  Netherlands. He owns a private practice, De Stotterpraktijk, specialised in  stuttering and cluttering. He is a person who stutters, a  RESTART-DCM-trainer, CESS-board member and ESS-teacher/coach. He co-founded  Stotterconnect, an organisation dedicated to Camp Dream. Speak. Live, and the  training of SLTs.

Kristel  is a passionate speech-language pathologist who stutters and who has cerebral  palsy. She works with clients who stutter in a school setting and in private  practice. She has presented workshops on stuttering affirming therapy  techniques nationally and internationally, published research on stuttering,  and has a chapter published in the book, 'Stammering Pride & Prejudice'.

Liam McLaughlin is a dance artist from New York whose artistic practice roots itself in 'stutter/dancing', a movement exploration that weaves the embodied experience of stuttering into choreographic and pedagogical frameworks.

By utilising stuttering's unruliness, he aims to disrupt societal expectations around efficiency, communication and clarity that embed themselves into everyday life.

Luke is  an interdisciplinary artist and musician based in Portland, Oregon. As a  person who stutters, his practice is rooted in the rich terrain of speech  diversity. In collaboration with the nonprofit SPACE, he curates the Library  of Dysfluent Voices, an archive that reimagines stuttering as a generative,  expressive mode of communication.

Marilena  (they/them) says, “Attending my first stammering support group in 2019  propelled me into my stuttering acceptance journey. Since then I’ve  volunteered with STAMMA’s helpline and conducted research into the  neuroscience of stuttering at UCL’s Speech Lab. I also run in-person support  sessions for women and non-binary people who stammer in London".

Michael  transformed his life through the Starfish Project, moving from speech  avoidance to advocacy. As a trustee for Empowering Voices, he helps others  ‘tame’ their stammers. Michael co-founded the STAMMA Nuclear Network and the  Stand Up to Stammering Facebook community, which empowers hundreds through  speaking challenges and supportive live videos.

Mike  runs an accountancy practice in Bristol with his two brothers, which has  helped hundreds of small and medium-sized businesses with their finances. As  a trustee of Empowering Voices, he is passionate about helping people who  stammer. In his spare time, he writes and performs electronic music.

Pamela  is from New York and hosts the long-running blog ‘Make Room For The  Stuttering’. She also hosts and produces a podcast exclusively for women  called ‘Women Who Stutter: Our Stories’, which she created in 2010. Pamela  has interviewed women who stutter from all corners of the world.

Patrick is a stammerer and researcher. He has collaborated with stammering artists, activists and therapists on a variety of projects.

Patrick and Sam are founder members of Stuttering Commons. Together with Chris Constantino, Patrick and Sam co-edited Stammering Pride and Prejudice: Difference not Defect in 2019 and are working on a sequel.

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Sam is  a Speech and Language Therapist and stammering ally. She has a particular  interest in disability studies, stammering activism and what stammering can  teach us about ourselves and the world. She recently co-developed a  stammering-affirming framework for speech and language therapy practice,  culminating in the app 'Reflect'.

Sarah is a specialist therapist at the Michael Palin Centre. She works with children and their families to support them to be confident communicators whilst stammering. She has a particular interest in using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and in building confidence and resilience in children who stammer.

Shane  says, “Music gave me the voice that I previously found hard to find. Since  the age of 4, I have wanted to get across opinions and views verbally, but a  speech impediment prevented me from doing this. Stammering was a frustrating  daily occurrence. But with years of speech therapy appointments, I have been  able to significantly control my speech”.

Sharon  is a Speech and Language Therapist and person who stutters. She has been  involved in theatre from a young age, where creative practice shaped her  communication skills and reduced stuttering-related anxiety. In her master’s  degree, she investigates improvisation as a therapeutic approach for children  who stutter.

Sipho  is a West Midlands-based performance poet whose work blends experimental  spoken word with themes of heritage, identity and social justice. As a  workshop facilitator, he creates inclusive, youth-focused spaces that nurture  confidence, craft and creative expression across schools, communities and  arts organisations.

Stéphanie  is a French Speech and Language Therapist. She discovered improvisational  theatre during her studies at the University of Brussels. She is one of the  founders of ‘ImproTour’, a road trip through France and Switzerland, during  which she had fun offering improv workshops for people who stutter.

Tash  works in fundraising at a charity. She’s also set up an art workshop called  ‘My Happy Place’ and co-leads the STAMMA Young People’s Network. Tash says,  “Art is a great passion of mine and I love to see how people express  themselves differently when given the opportunity to do so”.

Tea is  a trainee coaching psychologist. Having grown up with a stammer, she never  imagined there could be positives in her experience until discovering the  power of character strengths and strengths spotting. She is passionate about  helping people who stammer recognise their strengths and enhance wellbeing.

Trish is curious, loves storytelling and learning how to stop being frightened to touch worms while gardening! Among other things, Trish is a Speech and Language Therapist and enjoys sharing stammering affirmative practice with the team she supports and students at the university local to where she lives.

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