Melissa Balthazor
Owner and Clinical Director / MS, CCC-SLP / BCBA
Kansas State University
Melissa Balthazor is the owner and clinical director of Round Rock Children’s Therapy Center. She is also a practicing SLP who makes time to evaluate and treat clients because she loves it! She was born and raised in Baileyville, Kansas and received her M.S. in Communication Sciences and Disorders. She is ASHA certified and holds a Texas license.
Melissa has many years of clinical experience providing treatment to the pediatric population in public school settings (both at the primary and secondary levels) and pediatric outpatient clinics. Areas of expertise include spectrum disorders (e.g., Autism, Pervasive Developmental Disorder, and Asperger’s Syndrome), Apraxia of Speech, Rett’s Syndrome, Down Syndrome, phonological disorders, fluency disorders (i.e., stuttering), cognitive deficits, cleft lip and palate, and other general speech, language, and oral motor delays.
Additionally, she has attended numerous conferences and workshops to ensure that she and her team continually provide the most current methods of evidence-based treatment to every client. She has completed The Social Thinking Clinical Training Program Level 1-Assessment at Michelle Garcia Winner’s clinic in San Jose, CA, The Lindamood-Bell Phoneme Sequencing Program, and the SOS Approach to Feeding.
In her free time, Melissa enjoys barre, reading, traveling, gardening and spending time with her husband, Colt, and her two boys, Oliver and Charlie.
Una Buck
Occupational Therapist M.S,OTR/L
University of New Mexico
Una graduated with a Masters in Occupational Therapy from the University of New Mexico in 2009. She has experience working in the school setting, home health, and outpatient setting. Una has worked with children with sensory processing disorders, feeding difficulties, developmental delays, emotional regulation, handwriting difficulties, and Autism Spectrum disorders. Additionally, Una has completed a variety of continuing education courses in Advanced Feeding, DIR floortime, Handwriting Without Tears, and Zones of Regulation. In her free time Una enjoys yoga, baking, and hiking with her dog.
Kendall Harshberger
Occupational Therapist M.S,OTR/L
Indiana University
She has experience working with children with sensory processing disorders, developmental delays, and autism spectrum disorder. Kendall is passionate about fostering well-rounded independence in every child. In order to offer the most evidence-based approaches possible, she has taken continuing education courses in many areas of study, such as self-regulation, mindfulness, sensory processing, reflex integration, and interoception. She is NBCOT certified and licensed in the state of Texas.
Preston Ruland
Occupational Therapist M.S,OTR/L
Indiana University
Preston is an OTR who has been working in outpatient pediatrics since 2019. He has experience working with children with a variety of needs and areas for growth including: sensory processing, interoception, emotional regulation, feeding difficulties, autism, and motor skill difficulties. His goal is to provide support and promote improved independence and quality of life with the children he works with. Preston is certified in the state of Texas as well as nationally through NBCOT.
Christine Mata
Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant, COTA
Pima Medical Institute, El Paso Texas
Christine has been working as a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant since 2017. For 1.5 years, her experience was in home health and school setting. During the last 3 years, she practiced in a pediatric outpatient setting. She is Autism Certified by the International Board of Credentials and Continuing Education Standards. Her goal is working with children to provide an array of techniques through activities to restore function to accomplish independence for daily living.
Danya Weinheimer
Speech Language Pathologist, MS, CCC-SLP
Texas Tech University
Danya Weinheimer is one of the lead speech pathologist and scheduling coordinator at Round Rock Children’s Therapy Center. Danya received her undergraduate degree from Texas Tech University, Health Science Center and her master’s degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders from Abilene Christian University in 2013. When she moved to the Austin area, in June of 2013, she began her clinical fellowship at Round Rock Children’s Therapy and has remained with the clinic since obtaining her CCCs.
Danya enjoys having fun with all ages but her hearts desire is working with kids. Areas of exposure include spectrum disorders (e.g., Autism, Pervasive Developmental Disorder, and Asperger’s Syndrome), Apraxia of Speech, Rett’s Syndrome, Down syndrome, phonological disorders, fluency disorders (i.e., stuttering & cluttering), cognitive deficits, accent modifications, opposition defiant disorder, and other general speech, language, and oral motor delays. She specifically leads therapy sessions for social thinking groups of all ages that include training through The Social Thinking Curriculum by Michelle Garcia Winner’s and feeding sessions with training through The Sequential Oral Sensory (SOS) approach program for problematic feeding behaviors in all pediatric populations. She has continued her education in the area of speech by obtaining education in: executive functioning skills, TALK tools oral motor, social thinking, articulation/speech, and impulse control.
During her free time, she loves to go shopping for vinyl records, reading all the teeny bopper books (i.e. hunger games, twilight, etc.), running/chasing around her toddler, traveling, and spending time with family and friends
Bailey Dykes
Speech Language Pathologist, MS, CCC-SLP
Baylor University
Bailey graduated from Baylor University in 2017 with her Bachelors of Arts in Communication Sciences and Disorders. In 2018, she earned her Master’s of Science in Speech-Language Pathology from Baylor University. During her graduate studies, Bailey enjoyed her clinic rotations treating adult patients in the inpatient and outpatient settings and treating kiddos in early childhood intervention at preschools.
Bailey began her career as a Speech Language Pathologist working with the geriatric population in a skilled nursing facility treating patients with Aphasia, Dysphagia, Dementia, Parkinson’s, Dysarthria, and other cognitive impairments. After receiving her Certificate of Clinical Competence from ASHA, Bailey began working in the home health setting in order to gain experience treating pediatric patients as a professional, before transitioning to the private practice setting in January 2020. She has experience providing services to children with speech, language, and pragmatic disorders, those who are on the Autism spectrum, leading a social skills group for high schoolers, and working with Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) devices. Bailey especially enjoys working with children with speech sound disorders, such as Apraxia.
Bailey joined the Round Rock Children’s Therapy Center team as a Speech-Language Pathologist in June 2023. She is a member of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) and the Texas Speech-Language-Hearing Association (TSHA). In her free time, Bailey enjoys traveling with her family, baking, and visiting local coffee shops and breakfast spots around Texas.
Maya Tullio
Occupational Therapist M.S,OTR/L
Central Washington University
Maya is an occupational therapist at RRCTC who has experience in outpatient pediatrics, school-based therapy, and adult/older adult inpatient rehabilitation. She received her bachelors degree in Clinical Physiology and Psychology in 2019 from Central Washington University and her Masters of Science in Occupational Therapy in 2023 from Barry University. Maya has experience working with a variety of physical and neurological diagnoses including but not limited to Autism spectrum disorder, Down syndrome, ADHD, cerebral palsy, intellectual disability, sensory processing disorders, hypotonia, spinal cord injury, TBI, CVA, dementia, and limb amputations.
Maya found her passion in pediatrics following her internship here at RRCTC. Her focus with her practice is to uncover the underlying causes and factors that may be hindering your child’s independence and functional performance while also highlighting and nourishing your child’s strengths, interests, confidence, and quality of life. Family-centered practice is a must for this clinician as it will improve carryover with education and therapeutic recommendations as well as ensure therapy is targeting goals that best fit your family’s dynamic, routine, culture, and realistic expectations.
In her free time, Maya enjoys spending time with her husband, cat, and two rescue dogs. She loves exploring the outdoors just as much as being a homebody with all of her fantasy novels and binge worthy shows.
Carrie Munson
Speech Language Pathologist, MS, CCC-SLP
West Texas A&M
Carrie graduated from West Texas A&M University with a Master of Science degree in Communication Disorders. She has experience working in the public schools, rehabilitation facilities, skilled nursing facilities, and private clinics.
Carrie has performed diagnosis and treatment of receptive language disorders, expressive language disorders, articulation, phonological processing, motor speech disorders, voice, fluency, and pragmatic language disorders in infants, pre-school and school-aged children, and adults. She has also worked with diverse populations including persons with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Attention-Deficit Disorder, Down Syndrome, cleft palate/lip, Fragile X Syndrome, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, secondary language learners, dementia, TBI, aphasia, etc. She also has experience in teaching phonological awareness skills to help foster literacy skills and implemeting augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices for nonverbal children.
Carrie is an advocate for all her patients and is passionate about working with children and their families in a one-to-one setting to promote social, emotional, and behavioral health and academic success. She is excited to have joined a great team at Round Rock Children’s Therapy Center and welcomes the opportunity to work with you and your child!
Katia Gonzalez Quiroga, M.Ed., BCBA, LBA
Board Certified Behavior Analyst
University Of San Diego
Katia is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst who was born and raised in Monterrey, Mexico. She speaks both English and Spanish. Katia received her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of San Diego and her Master’s degree in Special Education with a concentration in Early Childhood Special Education from the University of Texas at Austin. Katia is credentialed by the BACB and holds a Texas license. When living in California, Katia also obtained her California Multiple-Subject Teaching Credential, and has experience working in the classroom. Working with kids has always been a passion of hers!
Katia has clinical expertise in assessment and treatment of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. She creates individualized programs for students, conducts functional behavior assessments, writes behavior
intervention plans, and provides training for the children’s families and the professionals who work with them. Katia specializes in teaching communication, behavior, and social skills. She has also lead social
thinking and social skills groups.
During her free time, Katia enjoys traveling, skiing, reading, pilates, and spending quality time with her friends and family.
Upasana Das Sarma
Registered Behavior Technician
Iowa State University
Upa was born and raised in India. In the year 2008 she first stepped into United States to pursue her dreams of studying psychology. She did her undergraduate in psychology from Iowa State University and later on completed her masters in Psychology. She moved to Austin in the year 2016. After moving to Austin she was offered an ABA job at an outpatient clinic. Her love for ABA and helping kids with Autism started from there. Helping people, especially kids, to make this world a better place is something she always wanted to do for herself. Upa has been an RBT for the past few years. Currently she is doing her BCBA certification course. My dream is to bring positive changes in the lives of children with Autism and their families.
Kelly Chong
Registered Behavior Technician
University Of Oklahoma
Kelly graduated from the University of Oklahoma in May 2022 with dual degrees in Psychology and Letters. Working in ABA combines her interests in working with children and learning more about neurodevelopment conditions. In addition to her work at Round Rock Children’s Therapy Center, Kelly works as a research assistant within the areas of teacher identity, agency, and resilience.
Senayit Berihun
Registered Behavior Technician
San Jose University
Sunny was born in Ethiopia. She has three beautiful children. She earned her Bachelors of Science in health science and Kinesiology from San Jose State University. She has experience working with children ages 2-18 old in various environments including , schools, home health, and clinical settings for the past 5 years. Sunny volunteered in RRISD Special Education Parent Advisory Committee as a campus representative. She has also worked in collaboration with speech, occupational, and behavior therapists to help kids with developmental delays, language impairment, and behavior challenges. I am credentialed as a RBT in the State of Texas.
Alison Baldridge
Board Certified Behavioral Analyst
University of Texas
Alison received her Bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood through 6th grade General Education from Sam Houston State University in 2012. She earned her Master’s degree in Education with an emphasis in Early Childhood Special Education from the University of Texas in Austin in 2016. Her experiences in education inspired her to pursue the field of ABA. Alison’s areas of interest include: autism-spectrum disorders, challenging behaviors and using sign language and AAC to help promote functional communication.