Qi Creative welcomes Janice Sumka, Speech-Language Pathologist, to the Qi Creative Team!

About Janice

Janice is a daydreamer, artist, and fierce cat mom! Janice tries to look for the silver lining in tough situations and is a firm believer that there is humour in everything.

Janice graduated from the University of Alberta with her Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology in 2016. Since then, she has been working with children with developmental disabilities and their families in their homes, schools, and community settings.

Janice was originally drawn to a career in Speech-Language Pathology as it gave her the chance to make meaningful differences in the lives of others. Janice never takes for granted all the “firsts” she gets to experience alongside families and is constantly reminded of the compassion, strength and resilience of people while doing the work that she does.

Janice enjoys spending time with her friends, family, and cats, Meeko and Maui. When not SLP-ing, you can find Janice at concerts, listening to music and podcasts, reading, and cross-stitching realistic portraits of celebrities. She has also honed her gardening skills over the last couple of summers and looks forward to growing every variety of heirloom tomatoes, ever.

Words from Janice

I can’t believe it’s been a whole month that I’ve been working at Qi Creative!

These past four weeks have been a whirlwind of meeting new colleagues and clients, visiting new towns, villages, hamlets, and neighbourhoods and getting my footing as part of a new team. I’ve been privileged to have been shown the ropes by such passionate, funny and knowledgeable clinicians!

So far, I’ve learned that Qi Creative works hard but plays harder. I’m learning that Qi Creative’s values and mission not only apply to their work with children, families and the community, but extend to their staff as well! I feel so lucky to be a part of such a flexible, understanding, and empathetic team. The staff at Qi Creative makes efforts to connect with each other both professionally and socially and the relationships forged among team members, I think, can easily be attributed to the culture created and upheld at Qi.

I’m excited to continue to grow my skills as a speech-language pathologist, coach, and citizen at Qi Creative!