The staff at Infant & Toddler Connection of Shenandoah Valley is a diverse, multidisciplinary team of licensed professionals. Each member of the team has experience helping children with a wide variety of developmental diagnoses. We also understand that the most important part of a child’s development is their family and we know how our staff can play a supporting role.

Our success comes from a deep commitment we all share towards improving the welfare of children. Our team is made up of mothers, fathers, teachers and doctors who understand the issue both personally and professionally. Whatever a child’s diagnoses, we can provide all of the resources needed to aid in their development.

Sharlene Stowers, Director of Early Intervention, Local System Manager

Sharlene is the local system manager for the Infant & Toddler Connection of Shenandoah Valley and has over twenty-five years of experience supporting individuals with special needs. During her tenure at Grafton, Sharlene has served as recruiter, case management supervisor, case manager, program supervisor and speech language pathologist. Earlier in her career, Sharlene served as a case manager with the Parent Infant Education Program at Northwestern Community Services board. Under Sharlene’s leadership, the Infant and Toddler Connection of Shenandoah Valley has truly blossomed.

Sharlene is a certified Virginia Early Intervention Service Coordinator and Supervisor and has a BS in Speech Pathology and Audiology from West Virginia University.

Emma Everson, Occupational Therapist

Emma Everson graduated from Shenandoah University in 2017 with a Masters of Occupational Therapy. Shortly thereafter, she joined the Infant and Toddler Connection as an Occupational Therapist. As a native to the Shenandoah Valley, being able to support the local community, helping families and children is important to Emma. She gains a great deal of fulfillment teaching parents new strategies to help their children with function and play. She strives to educate parents on how best to support their child through challenging times and enjoys being able to provide a new perspective for families with children who struggle with life skills such as eating at meal times. Sensory and food aversion are one of her passions of mine and is an area that she continues to research and learn more about.

Lori Fadeley, Developmental Educator

Lori Fadely, Developmental Educator has over 20 years experience working with the 0-3 population and 12 of those years has been in early intervention.  Lori serves children and their families in both VA and WV and absolutely loves her job!  She also loves living in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley, gardening, hiking and spending time with family.   She has experience working with a wide variety of developmental delays, speech delays, apraxia, sensory processing difficulties, autism spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy, Angelman Syndrome, visual impairments including CVI, hearing impairments, drug and alcohol exposure, prematurity and other diagnoses.  She assists families with routines, transitions, sleep difficulties and behavioral concerns.  She has basic knowledge of picture exchange communication, sign language and Spanish.  Continuing education is very important to Lori and she wants to keep current so that she continues to learn and have new information to share with families. 

Lori has a BS in Elementary Education, NK-4.

Kate Hartsook, Physical Therapist 

Kate Hartsook has been with the Infant and Toddler Connection ofShenandoah Valley for three years. She graduated from Shenandoah University with degrees in Exercise Science and a Masters in Athletic Training. With a plan to specialize in sports medicine once she graduated, Kate’s last physical therapy clinical education experience was at Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital where she fell in love with pediatrics. Her passion for helping children meet their goals and achieve the gift of mobility grew. Since the, Kate has received additional training in administering the TIMP (Test of Infant Motor Performance) and TMR (Total Motion Release). She enjoys working with parents and helping them learn ways to purposefully play with their baby to encourage development of their motor skills.

Jennifer Kepler, Pediatric Occupational Therapist

Jennifer has over sixteen years of experience working as a pediatric occupational therapist. She has worked with children in the Warren County public school system and the Infant and Toddler Connection of the Shenandoah Valley. As a pediatric occupational therapist, she evaluates and provides services to children with a variety of diagnoses, including congenital heart conditions, prematurity, substance exposure, autism, traumatic brain injury, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome and progressive neurological disorders. Jennifer has also served as adjunct faculty in the occupational therapy department at Shenandoah University. 

Jennifer received her BS degree in Physical Education and Psychology from the University of Wisconsin and her MS degree in Occupational Therapy from Shenandoah University.

Allison Lowery, Physical Therapist

Allison joined Grafton in 2013 as a pediatric physical therapist. She evaluates and provides services to children with a variety of neurological, musculoskeletal, and genetic conditions. She has a special interest in working with children born prematurely and children with neonatal abstinence syndrome. Allison received her BS degree in General Studies and her Doctorate in Physical Therapy degree from Shenandoah University. She has since received training in Neuro-Developmental Treatment and Total Motion Release.

Camberly “Cammy” Pifer, Service Coordinator

Cammy joined Grafton over 9 years ago as an Administrative Assistant at the Berryville campus. Passionate about her professional development, Cammy started pursuing her Associate’s degree and Bachelor’s degree. She soon moved to the Human Resources department as an Administrative Assistant and then served as a Recruiter within the department. In 2011, Cammy joined the Infant and Toddler Connection as a Service Coordinator. Cammy loves working with children and families and is excited about opening doors for infants and toddlers to meet their developmental milestones.

Cammy has an Associate of Arts degree in Human Services Management and a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice Administration.

Shawn Thomas, Service Coordinator

Shawn Thomas joined Infant Toddler Connection of Shenandoah Valley in December 2019, as a Service Coordinator. After graduating from Liberty University with a Bachelor of Arts in Education and a Minor in Psychology, Shawn  became an elementary school special education teacher. With an interest in helping children and families, Shawn was drawn to a position as a developmental specialist with a private preschool. Working in the preschool increased her interest in the Early Intervention process and she feels blessed to now be part of such a wonderful team.

Geri Stevens, Occupational Therapist

In 1997, Geri graduated from Quinnipiac University with a Post Baccalaureate Certificate in Occupational Therapy. She has been working as an occupational therapist ever since. Most of her experience is in pediatrics, working in the schools, outpatient, and early intervention. Since 2008, she has been an adjunct professor for Shenandoah University in the Masters of Science in Occupational Therapy Program. Recently, Geri enrolled in a Doctorate of Occupational Therapy Program and anticipate graduating in the Fall of 2021.

Geri has been working in Early Intervention since 2010. She believes that using the coaching models is truly effective in helping children (infants and toddlers) and their families and caregivers. Sensory Processing is an area in which she really enjoys working – enhancing a child’s sensory system usually enhances their developmental skills and she loves seeing that progress.

Kylie Zoller, Developmental Specialist

Kylie joined Grafton in 2012 as a Behavior Specialist, and earned her BCBA certification in May of 2013. In her role as a Board Certified Behavioral Analyst, she worked in both the Shenandoah Valley and West Virginia ABA programs. Prior to joining Grafton, Kylie held several teaching positions in a variety of academic settings in West Virginia, Maryland and as a Teach for America corps member.  She joined ITC in the fall of 2015 as a developmental specialist and has since been endorsed as an Infant Family Specialist, IMH-E. She is passionate about building relationships with the families she works with and feels most impactful when she can support parents in utilizing their own strengths to teach their children.

Gena Zydelis, Senior Service Coordinator, Central Point of Entry

As central point of entry and intake coordinator, Gena is the first person to reach out to families to offer the support of the Infant and Toddler Connection of Shenandoah Valley. She coordinates multidisciplinary evaluations of infants and toddlers, develops Individualized Family Service Plans and provides ongoing support and advocacy for the child/family. Gena also collaborates with the medical community and other referral sources and is an expert at accessing and connecting families to community resources.

Gena first got involved with early intervention as a parent when her daughter, Megan, was born very prematurely and diagnosed with cerebral palsy. As a result of her experience with her child, in 1991 Gena was brought on staff with the Parent Infant Education program, which was the predecessor of today’s Infant Toddler Connection.

Gena is certified in Virginia as an Early Intervention Service Coordinator and Master Coach.