Founder & CEO Social Thinking • MA, CCC-SLP

Michelle Garcia Winner, MA, CCC-SLP, is the founder and CEO of Social Thinking and a globally recognized thought leader, author, speaker, and social-cognitive therapist. She is dedicated to helping people of all ages develop social emotional learning, including those with social learning differences. Across her 30-year career she has created numerous evidence-based and evidence-informed strategies, treatment frameworks. Michelle's work also teaches how social competencies impact overall well-being, including one’s ability to foster relationships and their academic and career performance. She and her team continually update the Social Thinking® Methodology based on the latest research and insights they learn from their clients.

PhD, CCC-SLP • Chief Curriculum Officer

Pamela Crooke, PhD, CCC-SLP, is the Chief Curriculum Officer and Director of Research, Content, Clinical Services, and the Social Thinking Training & Speakers’ Collaborative. She served as a clinical faculty member of three universities and worked as a speech-language pathologist in the Arizona public schools for 15 years. Pam is a prolific speaker both in North America and abroad, and has co-authored, with Michelle Garcia Winner, five award-winning books related to Social Thinking. Their book, You Are a Social Detective! 2nd Edition (TSP, 2020), won the 2021 Creative Child Magazine Preferred Choice Award, the 2022 Mom's Choice Gold Medal Award, and 2022 Best Book Awards Finalist. She and Winner collaborate on writing articles and blogs that appear on the Social Thinking website and in a wide array of publications. Her current research focuses on using practice-based research to examine how professionals and parents utilize frameworks and strategies within the Social Thinking® Methodology.

MA, CCC-SLP

Kari Zweber Palmer is a speech-language pathologist/social-cognitive therapist at her private practice, Changing Perspectives, in Excelsior, MN. She has co-authored, with Michelle Garcia Winner, Ryan Hendrix, and Nancy Tarshis, We Thinkers! Volume 1 Social Explorers and We Thinkers! Volume 2 Social Problem Solvers. Additionally, Kari consults with local school districts on implementing Social Thinking into their programming.

Kari's interest in communication and related disorders began long before she studied it formally. Her mom, Jane, is a speech-language pathologist and Kari grew up in the field. Kari received her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Missouri and Master’s from the University of Kansas. Following her formal training, she started her career as a speech-language pathologist in the public schools in Minnetonka, MN, working predominately in the early childhood and elementary levels.

MA, CCC-SLP

Ryan Hendrix is a Social Cognitive Therapist at Social Thinking Stevens Creek in San Jose and a private therapist in San Francisco. She trained and works directly with Michelle Garcia Winner and Dr. Pamela Crooke. Her diverse caseload experience includes preschool-age children through young adults with varying levels of social cognitive learning challenges.

In addition to running groups, she actively collaborates with families and related professionals (teachers, resource specialists, psychologists, etc.) on ways to promote carryover and generalization of learning outside of the clinic setting. Ryan also helps supervise and train graduate students and clinicians in their clinical fellowship year and does ongoing mentorships within the Social Thinking Stevens Creek clinic.

MA, CCC-SLP

Nancy Clements is a speech language pathologist and Executive Director of Social Thinking Boston®, the East Coast sister clinic to Social Thinking Stevens Creek and Social Thinking Santa Clara. She brings her highly creative approach to her clinical practice, where she maintains a very active and varied caseload ranging from early social learners through adults. She is especially interested in bringing Social Thinking concepts to all learners and continuing to analyze the impact of social thinking methodologies across all tiers using a Response to Intervention (RTI) model. Nancy enjoys formulating programs from the ground up through creative strategies, systems of implementation, and models of efficacy that are data driven. Having been raised by parents who were both educators, she brings an empathic and collaborative approach to coaching teachers, administrators and specialists.

MA, MS, CCC-SLP

Nancy Tarshis, a speech-language pathologist and special educator with extensive experience working with children and their parents, is the Director of Early Childhood Programming at The Quad Preparatory School, which is dedicated to twice exceptional children, Grades K-12. For 27 years, she was a member of the professional team at the Children’s Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center (CERC) at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, serving as Supervisor of Speech and Language Services for 21 of them.

MS, CCC-SLP

Renee Attaway is the founder and director of Social Thinking® at Parish, a program at The Parish School that offers social cognitive services in the Houston, Texas. For over 5 years, her program provides group and individual therapeutic services for children from preschool to high school, an overnight social learning summer camp called Camp Social Superheroes, and a parent group.

As a Speech Language Pathologist, Renee has offered Social Thinking® groups since discovering Michelle's work in 2003. She has completed both the mentor training and internship at the Social Thinking clinics in San Jose, CA.

MA, MS, Educator

Debbie Meringolo, a special educator, clinician and developmental specialist, is the Director of Early Childhood Programming at Quad Preparatory School, a school for twice exceptional children, Grades K-12. She assumed this role in July 2018, after a 27-year history as the Associate Director of the Infant/Toddler Team and RELATE program at the Rose F. Kennedy Center Children’s Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center of Montefiore. Prior to her current role at Quad Prep, Debbie served as a consultant, bringing Social Thinking methodology to the school, developing the social emotional learning program and training staff members. Debbie has a long history working in schools as a reading specialist, supervisor and program developer in the New York City Department of Education for many years.

MA, CCC-SLP

Beckham earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Therapeutic Recreation and a Master of Arts degree in Speech Language Pathology at Oklahoma State University. She has worked in a variety of settings since 1990 and developed an early interest in social communication while working in acute care and rehabilitation settings in the Midwest. Beckham and her family moved to Ft. Collins, Colorado in 1996 where she served as staff therapist and director of the Speech-Language Pathology and Cognitive Rehabilitation departments at The Brain Injury Recovery Program. Her responsibilities included evaluation and treatment planning for adults and children, cognitive rehabilitation program development, in-service training, client care coordination and public education. Beckham also served as staff therapist at The Speech-Language Stimulation Center in Ft. Collins working with clients from birth to 3 years as well as adults with voice disorders.

PhD, CCC-SLP

Ariela Jokel, P.h.D, CCC-SLP is the head Speech Language Pathologist at the Weinberg Child Development Center at Safra Children's Hospital, Tel Hashomer Sheba Medical Center in Israel. She completed her undergrad degree at York University in Toronto, Canada in psychology with a minor in Spanish and her Masters and Doctoral degrees at The Callier Center, UTD in Dallas, Texas in communication disorders. She is currently a lecturer at the Department of Communication Disorders, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, at Tel Aviv University and has a private practice in Kochav Yair, Israel where she consults and works with individuals their families from birth to adulthood.