ISTAR Spotlight | Kiera Hughes

Inspiration

“Speech therapy helped me gain confidence.”

Kiera’s interest in language and science, as well as her own childhood experience with speech therapy for a speech sound delay, inspired her to become an SLP. Later, in her placement at ISTAR, she learned so much about fluency that she “became passionate about the work that ISTAR does.”

Background

Small-town Saskatchewan → Tokyo → Toronto → Calgary

Linguistics, philosophy, speech-language pathology and a love of learning new languages.

Kiera grew up in a small town in Saskatchewan before attending the University of Saskatchewan, where she earned a degree in linguistics with a minor in philosophy in 2014. She then spent a year living in Tokyo and teaching English. “I loved immersing myself in a new culture and trying to learn the language.” She returned to Canada to complete her master’s in speech-language pathology at the University of Toronto, and after graduating, she moved to Calgary to start her career.

Signature move

Confidence boost

Kiera helps clients recognize that communication is about so much more than what happens when they speak. She has enjoyed learning about the covert aspects of stuttering that affect people’s social and emotional health. “I really think that this understanding should be considered more widely in speech-language pathology, and that working on positive self-talk and reframing are core aspects of our discipline.”

Current quest

Keep levelling up.

“I want to continue to hone my clinical skills and meaningfully contribute to clients’ success.” She is excited about ISTAR’s growing team, especially in Calgary.

Kiera’s advice

“You are worth investing in.”

Take the steps toward your goals. The ISTAR party has your back. We’ll help!