The word victory is defined as achievement or success in a struggle or endeavor against odds or difficulties. My youngest sister, Victoria, struggled with dyslexia as a child and adolescent. Throughout her education she was aided by therapists, teachers, and our parents, who together in a relentless effort, sought to provide her the support needed to achieve victory over these difficulties. She graduated from the University of Miami School of Nursing and now provides care for children and Nicklaus Children’s Hospital while pursuing a graduate degree in Anesthesiology. She has always been an inspiration to me and led me to my career in education and related fields.

After acquiring my B.S. in Exceptional Student Education from the University of Miami I became involved with various research grants, aiming to create reading curriculums specifically for children with learning disabilities. I observed many of the children struggling with phonics and reading comprehension demonstrated underlying difficulties in phonemic awareness, auditory processing, receptive language, and expressive language. For this reason I completed a master’s degree in speech language pathology at Florida International University. After several years of experience in the community, I opened a center for pediatric speech and language therapy. Our list of services grew as we responded to the needs of the families we served. Our agency now provides occupational therapy and feeding/swallowing therapy, in addition to speech and language therapy.