Where it began

Our connection to the families we serve is both deeply personal and embedded in our daily work as clinicians and community partners.

For Davis, this connection began early. Growing up alongside her disabled cousin, she witnessed firsthand how a child could experience the world differently—and how systems often failed to provide inclusive, developmentally appropriate opportunities. That experience shaped her understanding of equity, access, and what meaningful support should look like.

Davis has an extensive background in adaptive and inclusive programming, including creating an adaptive gymnastics program and working in Special Recreation Association programs throughout high school and college. These formative experiences reinforced the importance of belonging, confidence, and meaningful community participation for children with disabilities. Today, as an occupational therapist and founder of an occupational therapy clinic, Kids Lead, Davis works directly with families navigating sensory processing differences, emotional regulation challenges, feeding difficulties, and exclusion from school or childcare settings.

Megan’s connection to this work is also rooted in relationships. While student teaching, she connected with a child with a severe speech sound disorder and, after observing his therapy session, knew she wanted to pursue speech-language pathology. During her graduate training, she found herself most aligned in a clinical preschool setting, where she supported a non-speaking autistic child and saw how connection-based, individualized support could transform engagement and participation.

She spent much of her career in public schools, working within systems that often required children to struggle before qualifying for services. She regularly saw young children—many from under-resourced, multilingual, or underserved backgrounds—enter school already in need of significant support, yet face barriers to accessing it. Constraints such as high caseloads, limited time, and strict eligibility criteria made it difficult to provide the level of support children and families truly needed, particularly in the earliest years when intervention has the greatest impact.

Motivated to address these gaps, Megan founded 143 Speech Therapy to work directly with families. Her approach is grounded in connection and caregiver empowerment, inspired by Mister Rogers’ belief that every child deserves to feel valued and understood.