Dr. Jessica Wacker is a Speech-Language Pathologist, Learning Specialist, and founder of The Loop Speech, Language, and Learning (2013) and FundEd Chicago (2019). The Loop partners exclusively with private schools in Chicago and provides speech, language, and learning support to children at their school during their school day. Dr. Wacker later founded FundEd Chicago, a not-for-profit, that equalizing access to specialized learning supports needed so all Chicago students can reach their full potential without cost barriers.
Dr. Wacker graduated with highest honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a degree in Communication: Speech and Hearing Sciences and a minor in English. During her time at UNC, she was a four-year varsity athlete and three-year captain of the Women's Fencing team. Dr. Wacker was also a research assistant at FPG Child Development Institute where she transcribed videos for research on Autism, Fragile X Syndrome, and Down Syndrome for the Carolina Communication Initiative and wrote her honors thesis on the pragmatic language profiles of mothers who have increased genetic liability to Autism and Fragile X Syndrome under the direction of Dr. Molly Losh. Dr. Wacker continued this research in graduate school at Northwestern's Neurodevelopmental Disabilities Laboratory.
After graduating from UNC, Dr. Wacker receive her masters and doctorate in Speech-Language Pathology from Northwestern University, her Learning Behavior Specialist I endorsement from the University of Illinois, and her executive MBA from Quantic University. She has experience working in public and private schools and private clinics in Chicago and the Chicagoland area.
Dr. Wacker holds a Wilson Level 1 Certification and has training in Seeing Stars, Visualizing and Verbalizing, SQ Write™ by Michael Gladstein, SPELL-Links™, and has extensive professional development in executive functioning strategies and social thinking.