My Story:

Margaret H Briggs, PhD

 In the 1960s when I grew up there weren’t a lot of options for girls. My guidance counselor dismissed secretary and I quickly dismissed nurse. When she proposed teacher or special education, I dismissed those as well. When she offered speech and language, not having any idea what that really meant nor what the educational requirements were, I said: “yes… I like to talk.” I definitely don’t recommend this strategy when attempting to choose a profession. But it turns out this was a perfect fit for me. When I entered my masters program, I was intending to specialize in adults who stutter. A series of events intervened and I ended up specializing in early intervention with children who had significant developmental and physical challenges.

I completed my Bachelors's and Master’s degrees at the State University of New York and a Ph.D. at UCLA. I have been a part-time and full-time university professor in Communication Disorders in both California and in New Jersey. One of the most defining career opportunities I had was at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles as the Director of Training in Communication Disorders at a transdisciplinary research and training program, now known as the Boone-Fetter Clinic. There I worked with brilliant professionals representing the full spectrum of children’s health providers. We conducted team evaluations, seeing children with complex and often rare medical and genetic disorders. It was an incredible learning experience. I regularly tell people that I learned to be a much better speech-language pathologist as a result of working across so many disciplines. As a result of this experience, I wrote a textbook on the benefits of transdisciplinary early intervention teams.

       In 1988 I started a private practice in Pasadena, CA which grew; we were known for decades as the go-to group for early intervention. Well… our clients got older and while they were now talking, they still had communication challenges. There was no one in our community to refer them to, so I retooled and began working with older… and older… and older clients. I never thought I would end up with a specialization with teens, but life has a funny way of working out perfectly.

       I have been working remotely for over two years (I started a year before the Pandemic forced us all to work from home) and moved to Santa Barbara in June 2020. I am anxious to learn about the needs of my new community and how I can be of service to those with communication differences.

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Margaret H. Briggs, Ph.D., CCC-SLP
Board Recognized Specialist in Child Language
Fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association