2026 RSOI Feeding Seminar
October 22-23, 2026
Submit Your Case Study!
On Friday, Elisa Thurman and Lily Glasgo will be presenting on IDDSI and a feeding case study review. Registered participants have the opportunity to submit their case study and/or questions for this interactive session.
All participants who submit a case study will be entered into a random drawing for a prize. Two winners will be chosen. We are giving away (1) complimentary 2027 Feeding Seminar registration and (1) free 30-minute consultation with The Feeding Link!
Serving Oregon and beyond. All are welcome!
The Feeding Seminar is specifically designed to support education-based swallowing and feeding teams. It addresses safe swallowing and feeding supports in early childhood and educational settings. New teams, team members and program administrators are encouraged to attend. The seminar is also open to parents, students, Speech-Language Pathologists and Assistants, Occupational Therapists and Assistants, educators and assistants, Pediatricians and Assistants, Nurses, Dietitians and appropriate others. Topics are also relevant to clinically-based professionals.
Rachel Conrad, MA, CCC-SLP
Rachel Conrad is a licensed Speech-Language Pathologist, founder of Bite & Bloom Therapy, Co-Chair of the Feeding Matters Research Consortium, and an international speaker on feeding, swallowing, and communication. With nine years of experience, Rachel provides specialized care for children and adults experiencing feeding, swallowing, and communication challenges. Her work is deeply informed by lived experience, having experienced a feeding disorder as a child and now living with ARFID (Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder). This personal perspective, combined with her clinical and research experience, shapes her commitment to compassionate, collaborative, and individualized care that recognizes the complexity of feeding challenges and the importance of being heard, understood, and supported.
Kristen M. West. Ed.D. CCC-SLP
Kristen M. West is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Pennsylvania Western University (PennWest). She earned her Ed.D. from Slippery Rock University and has clinical experience across a variety of pediatric settings, including early intervention, acute care, outpatient care, and school-based services working with children with complex medical needs. Prior to joining PennWest, Kristen helped establish a safe feeding program within a public school system and served as a safe feeding consultant for the same educational agency. She has presented and published multiple articles on pediatric feeding and swallowing and is passionate about advocating for children and families to have access to appropriate feeding and swallowing services across the continuum of care.
Dr. Karen B. Howarth OTD, MS,OTR/L
Dr. Karen B. Howarth has been a licensed and board-certified pediatric OT for 25 years. She has experience working in various settings, including neonatal intensive care units, children's rehabilitation hospitals, pediatric and cardiac intensive care units, outpatient clinics, early intervention, and, most recently, the public school system. The past 15 years of her career have been spent in the North Carolina public school system, where she has served as a leader on the school district's Mealtime Support Team for students with unique mealtime needs.
She has extensive and specialized training in pediatric feeding difficulties and disorders, including premature infants, children with Cerebral Palsy, transitioning children from tube feeding to oral feeding, children with Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID), and Autism.
She is the founder of a mealtime screening tool she developed entitled MEALSS. She has been published in OJOT and has presented at both state and national levels about her screening tool and the importance of addressing mealtime participation in the school setting.
Elisa Thurman, M.S., CCC-SLP
Lily Glasgo, PhD, OTR/L
