Today we’d like to introduce you to Stacy Payne, M.S., CCC-SLP.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I am a true Angeleno, born and raised here in Los Angeles, and I currently live one block from where I grew up! I went to Wagon Wheel for preschool, the Leona School for grade school (where I met my husband), and Immaculate Heart for high school. I always knew I wanted to work with children but wasn’t sure in what capacity. I wasn’t interested in going to medical school like many of my friends (so pediatric medicine was out) and I didn’t think that I could handle 30 children at once (so a classroom teacher was out, too). In my senior year of high school, I had a random conversation with one of my favorite older cousins who was earning her doctorate in Speech Language Pathology at the time. She described her love for the field and the impact she was having on children’s lives by helping them overcome speech, language, and communication challenges. When I realized how incredibly diverse the field was and just how many types of settings, disorders, and people I could work with as a Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP), I was sold! I entered UC Santa Barbara with a declared major of Communicative Disorders with an emphasis in Speech-Language Pathology. The entry-level degree for the field is a Master’s Degree so I knew I would be in school for at least six years, which seemed like a piece of cake compared to med school!
After graduation, my career began as a clinical fellow during which I worked with patients across the age spectrum, from infants through geriatrics, at three different locations: an outpatient clinic, an Adult Day Health Care facility, and an acute care hospital. It was an incredible experience because I got to work with children and adults, as well as work in a medical setting. In the six years following my fellowship, I honed my skills as a medical SLP in major hospitals on both coasts. I helped patients not only with communication challenges but with feeding and swallowing deficits as a result of neurologic injury, medical compromise, or structural anomalies. In the year 2000 (amidst the panic of Y2K, remember that?) I landed what I considered at the time to be my “dream job” at the prestigious Cedars-Sinai Medical Center as the senior pediatric SLP. In that role, I served medically fragile premature and term infants and children in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, and in the general pediatric ward. I also served as the senior therapist on the hospital’s Craniofacial and Cleft Palate team along with some of the best ENTs, plastic surgeons, dentists, geneticists, and nurses in the world!
Being a medical SLP was so incredibly rewarding but as the years passed and I mothered my own four children through various stages of development, I began to realize the importance of really great care after the acute phase of illness was over and daily life resumed (or began) for these kids and their parents. There didn’t seem to be a healthy presence of medical SLPs in the community who really understood what these children and families had been through prior to discharge home. I started taking on a few patients at a time, who I treated in their homes after work, and eventually realized that I could serve more families in need if I started a private practice. So, over ten years ago, I made that leap and now I have the pleasure of leading a group of remarkable and like-minded SLPs at Bright Beginnings Pediatric Services in the heart of Los Angeles – the very same community where I grew up!
I am committed to never stop learning and growing in my profession, even after nearly three decades in the field! In addition to being an SLP, I hold certifications in related fields to help me serve my clients and their families as best as possible. I am a Certified Lactation Educator, an ADHD-Certified Rehabilitation Services Provider, and am working toward my certification as a Qualified Oral Facial Myologist.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Becoming an SLP and providing clinical care has always been exciting and a joy! The road to building a successful practice, however, hasn’t always been easy but certainly worth it! I think the biggest challenge, as any business owner will likely agree, is finding a healthy way to nurture my ever-evolving practice (my 5th child), my staff and the families we serve, while creating space and energy to care for myself and my family. I am not sure if small business owners ever really achieve work-life “balance.” When the clinic closes at the end of the day, owners don’t stop working. Much like being a parent, there are no evenings, weekends, or holidays off! Having the support of a dedicated team, who are always willing to go the extra mile, and seeing the lives we change every day make all of those sacrifices worthwhile. I wish we could help even more families, especially those in the underserved communities within our city!
As you know, we’re big fans of Bright Beginnings Pediatric Services & Bright Beginnings Speech Pathology, Inc. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Bright Beginnings is a speech pathology practice in Los Angeles’ Miracle Mile that provides comprehensive therapy services to children of all ages (including newborns) and adults struggling with a variety of speech, language, feeding, and swallowing disorders. We are unique in that our clinicians have specialized training in medically based conditions and are qualified to work with clients with feeding tubes, tracheostomies, and other complex medical conditions.
We are also one of the few speech pathology practices to provide cognitive-based learning therapy through our Bright Minds Therapeutic Learning Academy. In this program, we take a deep dive into the underlying cognitive processes that are necessary for academic success to dramatically improve listening, reading, spelling, writing, math, auditory processing, executive functioning, attention, and focus. We use an integrative approach to build these skills from “the ground up” which allows students to soar in ways never thought possible.
Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
We partner with universities across the country to provide real-life learning opportunities for students and it is such a pleasure to help develop clinical skills in new therapists. There is nothing like “getting in the trenches” to get a first-hand look at any career one might be considering. I love it when students or new therapists reach out to me and have done their research about our organization and the work that we do. It is so impressive when I meet someone interested in or just starting out in the field and they tell me that they have been inspired by my journey after reading about it on our website or watching a youtube video. It shows me that they are curious and committed, and really serious about learning more. I did the same thing as a newer clinician. I researched professionals who were doing what I wanted to do and found a way to be involved. Volunteering to help out at their practice or shadowing a professional for the day are both really great ways to establish a relationship with a professional. Get yourself in the “room where it happens!”
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: www.BrightBeginningsLA.com
- Instagram: @BBPSLA
- Facebook: @BBPSLA
