About | TeleTalk Therapy LLC

A student building a tower with blocks. The blocks have letters on them.

About Us

TeleTalk Therapy is a small teletherapy company that provides speech therapy and occupational therapy exclusively to school districts in Alaska. Teletalk Therapy was founded by two speech therapists who looked to create a better approach to speech therapy for rural communities after living in Alaska and traveling throughout the state to provide speech therapy services. Teletalk Therapy was formed on the basis of providing collaborative teletherapy services where the service providers are truly part of the community and team. We strive to build relationships with the students, school staff and parents we serve. We take part in meetings, provide education, routinely talk to parents, and work to meet the needs of each student, using technology as a resource to provide consistent therapy. Our districts have reported experiencing a higher rate of progress and higher rate of discharge due to the increased frequency of services.

Meet the leaders of TeleTalk

Annie Tyrell

MA CCC-SLP

Annie has been a speech pathologist for over 12 years. After finishing grad school in CT she moved to Alaska to pursue her career and find adventure! She worked in a private practice and hospital setting and then began traveling to remote communities throughout the state of Alaska to work with schools. After falling in love with the communities and the people, she decided to explore teletherapy services as a way to provide more consistent services to rural Alaska communities. She found it was a great fit and soon after, combined forces with her good friend Annie Iovanella, and Teletalk was born! When not working, Annie enjoys traveling and spending time outside with her husband and 2 children.

Annie Iovanella

MA CCC-SLP

Annie has over 12 years of experience as a speech language pathologist. Her career began providing speech services to a variety of districts in the public school setting. A member of Assistive Technology Teams, she worked with districts to create procedures and implement RTI for students. After the birth of her first child, she made the switch to teletherapy servicing students in rural Alaskan communities. She instantly fell in love with this unique population of students and hasn’t looked back since! Annie worked for different teletherapy companies, but always felt like something was missing. Together, she and her longtime friend from graduate school, Annie Tyrell, came together to form TeleTalk Therapy. In her free time Annie enjoys spending time at the beach with her husband and three children.

Meet The Team

Kathryn Filer

MA CCC-SLP

Kathryn has been an SLP for 5 years and joined TeleTalk Therapy in August 2023. One of her favorite parts of the job is getting to know the students, staff, and families while providing support and working towards speech and language goals. In her free time, she loves spending time outside with her dog Chief, exercising, baking sweets, and reading.

Katie McNamara

MA CCC-SLP

Katie McNamara M.A., CCC-SLP, is a Speech-Language Pathologist with a decade of experience. She spent 8 years in public schools in Connecticut before joining Teletalk Therapy 3 years ago. Katie is dedicated to helping individuals achieve their communication goals with a personalized approach. Outside of work, she enjoys swimming, yoga, and relaxing with her cat, Indy.

Linda Drosdek

MA CCC-SLP

Linda Drosdek has found joy in providing over 20 years of speech therapy to students in school settings. Based in Massachusetts she teaches language and speech skills through stories, music, conversation and interactive games during teletherapy sessions. When not engaging with students in Alaska, she can be found practicing yoga, walking, and traveling with her family around New England and beyond!!

Sarah Tatgenhorst

MA CCC-SLP

This is Sarah's first year working for TeleTalk Therapy and she is so excited to join the team! She has been an SLP for 2 years and an SLPA for 4 years in public schools. Sarah has provided speech therapy services to all ages in a variety of settings including schools, telepractice, and nursing homes. She loves working with children and being a part of a helping profession! In her free time, Sarah likes to be active and be outdoors. In the summer, she spends a lot of time paddle boarding and swimming at the lake or ocean. She enjoys downhill skiing and skating in the winter.

SARAH MURPHY

MA CCC-SLP

Sarah has been an SLP for 3 years and joined TeleTalk Therapy in 2022. She enjoys getting to know the staff and students at each school she works with and working with them to develop goals, and treatment plans that best support students' communication in schools and their communities. When she is not at work, she loves to be outdoors visiting with family.

Stefani McBratney

M.S. CCC-SLP

Stefani has been an SLP for 25 years. She has worked in primarily acute care settings, but she has worked in every setting from acute care to home health. Stefani has been practicing teletherapy since 2016. Her interests/specialties are in dysphagia, cognition and language. She enjoys utilizing additional languages during sessions (sign/German).

Katie Barrette

occupational therapist

Katie has been working in occupational therapy for over 16 years. She graduated from Briarwood College in Southington, CT in 2007 with her Associate’s degree as a certified occupational therapy assistant. Katie's work experience includes working 12 years at the Gengras Center School, a private special needs school in West Hartford, CT. She also has been working part-time as the Activities of Daily Living Coordinator at the Farmington Valley Transition Academy in Avon, CT for 17 years teaching functional life skills to students ages 18-22 in their home and community setting. In 2018, Katie made the decision to go back to school to receive her Master’s degree in occupational therapy from Bay Path University and graduated in December 2020. This previous school year she started working full time for Simsbury Public Schools as a district wide occupational therapist. This is her third year working as a virtual occupational therapist for Teletalk Therapy LLC and she thoroughly enjoys working with all of her students. She is married to her wonderful husband Tim for 12 years and they have a beautiful 9-year-old son Andrew. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with friends and family, gardening, going for walks and hikes.