Meet the experts

Jessica Durkovich, MA, CCC-SLP graduated from Ball State University in 2005 with a Master's Degree in Speech-Language Pathology. Jessica's career-long passion has been caring for adults in acute care, with a specific love for dysphagia. However, since joining the IU Health Critical Care Rehab team in 2017 she has focused on learning more about the medically complex patients in the ICU and how the SLP can effectively manage both dysphagia and cognition. Joining the Critical Care Rehab team has spurred a drive to learn more about delirium and cognition and its implications for critically ill patients. She has demonstrated passion and dedication while developing the role of the SLP as an integral member of the critical care team. Jessica is an active member of the ICU Liberation Team and the Critical Care Innovative Network at IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital. Through this hard work, Jessica and her team were awarded the IU Health East Central Region Values Team Leadership award in 2020. Jessica has presented at several universities, state, and national conferences on the topic of the SLP’s role in the ICU and assessment of cognition.

Bridgette Pepmeyer has been working as an OT for 12 years in various settings, with a background focusing mainly on neurorehabilitation. For the past three years, Bridgette has been helping to run a Café that employs adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and has found that OTPs can play a major role in helping these individuals engage meaningfully in employment. Through adaptive and restorative lenses and with a strategy-training guided discovery approach like CO-OP, Bridgette has worked to help adults with IDD soar past functional plateaus and gain vocational independence and a heightened sense of self-accomplishment.

Stephanie currently works in Miami, Florida as an occupational therapist and certified hand therapist within a hospital-based outpatient setting. She holds a post-professional doctorate degree in Occupational Therapy from EKU and certifications as a certified occupational manual therapist and certified strength and conditioning specialist.