Cheryl Councill, MS, CCC-SLP
Clinical Faculty Member
Loyola University Maryland
Cheryl Councill has been working with children who have Down syndrome since 1980, when she first completed observation hours and became a classroom volunteer at St. Francis School for Special Education in Baltimore, MD, a school for children with special needs from ages 3-13 years.
Councill later completed an externship there as part of her graduate training at what was then Loyola College in Maryland. Upon completion of her master’s degree, she was employed as the speech-language pathologist at St. Francis for 3 years. Libby Kumin then invited Councill to be a tester in her study on intelligibility in children with Down syndrome; after hiring Councill as a clinical supervisor, Libby, Mina Goodman and Councill began their journey in developing the Center for Excellence in Communication for Individuals with Down syndrome at Loyola University. The journey began with 2, three-year grants for Early Intervention, which allowed them to serve children and their families, coming to our Columbia Center from Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia. Since that time, they have had the honor to know and work with over 165 families and people with Down syndrome. The program began as a parent training program, and has emerged as collaboration with parents, siblings, extended families and individuals with Down syndrome.
As their “babies” have grown into adults (some of them in their 30s now), they have grown with them, continuing to discover new needs in communication skills across their life span. Councill looks forward to our continuing work together and sharing with our new families all that we have learned.