Dana E. Gooden-Schroeder, M.A. CCC-SLP, Founder and Owner of Speech Language Learning Systems, Inc. and co-founder of Language Pathways, Inc., received her undergraduate and graduate degrees in Communication Disorders from Truman State University, formerly Northeast Missouri State University. 

She has owned SLLS for over 30 years and has practiced in the St. Louis area since receiving her license in 1988 and is passionate about providing services that nurture skills development while empowering children to celebrate the perfection of their own neurodiverse learning system. Prior to starting her private practice, she was employed by Special School District of St. Louis County (SSD) and Mercy Child Development Center.  During her tenure with SSD, she was recognized by local ABC affiliate KTVI channel 2 as a “Class Act” award winner as part of their Great Expectations Educational Project. These honors were given to educators making a difference and Dana was acknowledged for implementing a “Language in the Classroom” pilot for students participating in inclusionary education. She has provided curriculum-based speech language therapy through a variety of programs including Class within a Class (CWC) team teaching models, and collaborative intervention models.  Her practice has included hospital/clinic and private practice settings focusing on work with Neonatal Intensive Care Follow-Up, parent-infant groups, early childhood, school-aged populations, and young adults. 

Dana is zealous about the role speech and language skills plays in the development reading/writing proficiency and executive function skills important to academic success. As a result, over 20 years ago, she made sure SLLS offered therapeutic reading services for students with dyslexia and that SLLS staff received personalized training from distinguished therapist Sarah Ward of Cognitive Connections, an expert in executive functioning and co-author of 360⁰ Methodology. SLLS proudly offers services from certified structured literacy/dyslexia specialists and all SLLS staff have been trained in intervention models to meet the needs of students experiencing literacy and executive function challenges. Intervention models include but are not limited to, Wilson Reading®, Take Flight, SPIRE®, Spell Links™, LIPs®, Visualizing and Verbalizing®, The University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning Strategic Instruction Model (SIM™), and Executive Function 360⁰ Thinking Methodology®.

In January 2009 Dana completed a Social Thinking® Clinical Training Program (formerly called Mentor Training) with Michelle Garcia Winner at her Social Thinking Center in San Jose, CA. to expand the quality of services SLLS provided to students with social communication needs.  She and an additional SLLS staff member, are two of the only three therapists in the St. Louis area to have completed such a training experience and two of only seven in the state of Missouri.   

Dana has been a presenter locally, as well as at the state and national levels in the areas of speech-language development of the infant through school-aged child, collaborative intervention models, curriculum-based language intervention, strategies for improving comprehension and oral/written expression, and executive function strategies for classroom success.

When Dana is not working, she enjoys time with her husband, family and friends, traveling, gardening, time by the water, live music, and the day-to-day adventures of her two rescue greyhounds.