Early Intervention

Walinda Nicholson has been a Special Instructor with Arc Fayette for 8 years.

Walinda Nicholson has her teaching degree Special Education PreK-4th grade and her Masters in Special Education PreK-8th grade from Carlow University and California University of PA.

Elizabeth Lowden has been a Special Instructor with the Early Intervention program at the Arc Fayette since 1988.

She has her BA in Psychology and a Masters in Special Education specializing in Early Intervention and Learning Disabilities from WVU.

Dianna Hoffer is a special instructor with the Early Intervention program at the Arc Fayette.

Dianna Hoffer has a Bachelors of Social Work and Child development/Child Welfare from California University of PA. She has over 26 years experience in the Field of Early Intervention, and 10 years at Arc. Dianna enjoy Coaching parents on ideas and strategies they can implement in their home to help their child reach developmental milestones. Diana is also a mom of 4 boys.

Donna Stash is a special instructor with the Early Intervention program at the Arc Fayette.

Donna Stash have spent my entire professional career as an advocate for Early Childhood Education. With a Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary and Early Childhood Education from California University of PA, she started her career at the Arc Fayette as the teacher in the Child Development Center, many years ago.  Since then, she held various positions with Head Start, Early Head Start, PA Pre-K Counts, Keystone Stars Early Learning Resource Center- Region 4 and Early Intervention. When the opportunity for Special Instructor at the Arc presented itself, she gladly accepted as if she had come full circle, back to where it all started. Working with families and children to share her knowledge and experience, preparing them for that “next step” is her passion.

Melodi Bryner is a Physical Therapist with the Early Intervention program at the Arc Fayette.

Melodi has 20.5 years of experience in Pediatric Physical Therapy.  She attended Saint Francis University where she received a Bachelor’s of Science in 2002 and a Master’s in Physical Therapy in 2004. She began working at Redstone Rehabilitation where she worked doing outpatient and home health until Melodi could work in the school setting full time knowing that she wanted to work with the pediatric population. Melodi worked in school districts, daycares, preschools and homes with children ages 3-21 for 9 years before moving onto Early Intervention exclusively for the past 12 years. She has experience working with children with developmental delays, Torticollis, prematurity, Down’s syndrome, autism, as well as a wide range of rare disorders. Melodi has experience in using helmet therapy for plagiocephaly, kinesiotaping, working with orthotists and DME companies to obtain orthotics, bracing and equipment as needed. She loves getting to know the families and children in EI.

Monica Trimbath is a speech therapist with the Early Intervention program at the Arc Fayette.

Monica Trimbath received her degree in Communication Disorders from California University of Pennsylvania in 1997. Initially, she worked with elementary and preschool age children with a school district in Meridian, Idaho. Returning to PA with her family in 2005, she began working with the Arc Fayette to provide speech and language therapy services to toddlers and their families in the local community. Approaching 20 years working in early intervention, she feels privileged to partner with the Arc Fayette to support young children with receptive and expressive language delays in their development of essential communication skills so that they can have positive and meaningful interactions with family members and loved ones.