Download the show notes and full transcript of the conversation.
Today’s guest, Ebony Green, has made it her business to help other SLPs get a fair deal in school based settings! Ebony speaks openly and honestly about the challenges she faced as a school based SLP and the situation that led to her leaving direct employment and moving into contract work – ultimately leading to her speciality and expertise as the “SLP Contracts Queen”! A strong advocate for change, Ebony speaks about the importance of being happy in your work as an SLP, and having the flexibility to be able to work creatively and innovatively as a therapist.
Discussion & Reflection Question
- Have you thought about your boundaries and limits around your remuneration as an SLP and the number of hours you work, and when? What works for you?
- How are your contract negotiating skills? Can you practice this with someone prior to negotiations, undertake continuing education to brush up on negotiating with your employer?
- If you’re unhappy with your current situation, or one that is potentially being expected of you, how can you change it?
- Are there ways you can utilize any of your many talents as an SLP in an entrepreneurial way or via your own business to help others?
- Is there a company in the area you live, like Ebony’s, that you can connect with to be successful in working as a contract school based SLP?
“Definitely try to negotiate. To change the idea that working in schools is going to automatically equal a low paycheck, we have to step in and start negotiating contracts. Negotiate your salary, and negotiate your time. Ask for help. Don’t be afraid to set boundaries. At the end of the day, you are very valuable and it’s hard to replace us. If the district really cares and values you, then they’ll listen to you and hopefully make those changes.”
– Ebony Green
Ebony Green, M.S., CCC-SLP
Ebony is a speech language pathologist and a former K-12 teacher. Ebony started her private practice in 2019 and was able to secure contracts with several schools and double her practice revenue within the first two years of being in business. Since Ebony became an entrepreneur, she has always helped other private practitioners along the way. As a former educator, Ebony is passionate about teaching and sharing resources with others. In 2021 Ebony was named an ASHA Distinguished Early Career Professional based on her work and the platform she built to help other SLPs learn how to become successful business owners. Today, Ebony has contracts with dozens of schools in Arizona. Her company contracts with various schools including private schools, public schools, and charter schools. Ebony leads a team of 30 therapists and serves as the CEO of her private practice, CASA Speech and Development Services.
Contact Ebony Green:
Ebony@slpceosolutions.com
Katie Widestrom-Landgraf, MS, CCC-SLP
Katie is a speech-language pathologist who has worked in both medical and educational settings for over 20 years. She presently works with adolescents in a large suburban high school.
Katie is a past president of the Minnesota Speech-Language Hearing Association (MNSHA). She has collaborated with the MN Dept. of Education to expand the understanding of oral language as critical neurodevelopmental infrastructure for academic achievement processes.
Katie is most passionate about helping students develop their language skills as a tool for thought, wonderment, questioning and curiosity…and of course communication. When Katie is not working with the students on her caseload, she is still working with students to develop their communication and self-expression as a high school forensics coach.
Katie enjoys great conversations and connections where one loses a sense of time, fabulous dining experiences, transcendent cups of coffee and books that are so good she negotiates with her alarm clock so that she might finish just one more chapter.
Contact Katie Widestrom-Landgraf
the.curious.slp@gmail.com
Ebony’s lived experience is not the exception or an outlier. Many individuals experience expectations that exceed capacity in school settings. No human wants to get up day after day, invested in doing a really good job, and be placed in a situation that is not tenable, that sets you up to feel like you’re not doing a good job. As Ebony says, it doesn’t mean you have to leave the place you love, the population that you love to work with, the setting that you love to work in. It means you envision doing this work in a different way.
– Katie Widestrom-Landgraf
Mattie Murrey Tegel, MA, CCC-SLP, L, CPC, CLSC
Medical Speech-Language Pathologist and Founder of Fresh SLP
Mattie Murrey-Tegels is the founder and SLP behind Fresh SLP and The Missing Link for SLPs Podcast. She’s been “in-the-trenches” as a medical SLP around the world for over 25 years and now an Assistant Professor for 3 years. She is thrilled to be adding this dream of a podcast because paying her experiences forward is something she is very passionate about. If you ask her patients and students, one thing they will remember is how much she loves her job! She may not look like it but she is a huge introvert and when she is not actively working as an SLP, she is almost always reading, writing (writing over 1,000,000 words a year), or listening to amazing Chicago Blues bands. She also loves being outdoors and definitely enjoys soaking up the sun at her home in Minnesota, where warm and sunny days can be limited. She’s ridden motorcycles for many years, raced sled dogs, hiked huge mountains yet she cherishes the quiet moments of climbing into a hammock to nap or timeless conversations with friends and family.
The Missing Link for SLPs podcast and Fresh SLP is her legacy, giving back to a career that has so richly rewarded her.
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Not a substitute for a formal SLP education or medical advice for patients/caregivers.
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