Hey there, meet Kristin!

Kristin Szymanek, MA, CCC-SLP, is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she completed both her undergraduate and graduate degrees. She has 10 years of clinical experience as a speech-language pathologist, with over 8 years devoted to the pediatric oncology/hematology population. Kristin serves as the Director of Rehabilitation at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, where she also provides acute, inpatient, and outpatient services to infants, children, adolescents, and young adults with cancer and other catastrophic diseases. Her research interests include rehabilitation for  patients with posterior fossa syndrome and the comprehensive management of feeding and swallowing disorders in childhood cancer patients and survivors. Kristin strives to make evidence-based information related to childhood cancer easily accessible to speech-language pathologists and applicable to their clinical practice.

• She is 5’10
• Has been cage diving with Great White sharks off the coast of Africa
• One time she won Yard of the Month which included having a giant metal sign in her yard
• LOVES to golf
• Has rescue dog - she’s a Shih Tzu named Louise
• Has snorkeled the Great Barrier Reef in Australia

• Loves to cook/bake and used to volunteer as an assistant chef for community cooking classes at Whole Foods
• Her favorite fast food is Steak N Shake or Chick Fil A
• In graduate school, she was the house mom for a sorority on campus
• Would rather read (or listen to) a book than watch TV, unless it’s The Great British Baking Show