About | Charlottesville

Our Mission

The Charlottesville NSA Chapter is committed to continue what Courtney started. If you stutter, you are not alone! We are here to support you! We meet monthly to catch up, discuss triumphs and trials of life, and encourage one another. This is a safe place. We have the opportunity to serve people who stutter of all ages, their families and anyone else with an interest in and support of stuttering, such as SLPs and SLP students. Currently our membership ranges from second grade to retired.

Our Story

For 20 years, Courtney Luckman’s stuttering was a debilitating monster that controlled her life. In 2011, she attended the Successful Stuttering Management Program, a three-week intensive therapy program in Cheney, Washington. After the Successful Stuttering Management Program, with the help of the University of Virginia Speech Pathology and Audiology Department, she founded the Charlottesville Chapter of the National Stuttering Association. Stuttering became a gift, a source of deep determination to turn her struggles into a source of hope and inspiration for others. Since founding the chapter, she has been featured on the local news, on Stuttertalk podcast, and was a recipient of the Virginia Legend award for her work with stuttering awareness. After graduating from UVA in 2013, she moved to Chicago where she became co-chapter leader of the City of Chicago NSA chapter. She is on the 20 Somethings committee of the National Stuttering Association and has attended 5 national conferences. She considers this chapter her “baby” and is extremely grateful for the chapter leaders and members for their time and dedication in keeping the group going. Currently, Courtney is pursuing a masters in speech-language pathology at the University of Maryland in College Park. She is passionate about stuttering and considers the NSA to be her second family. When she is not doing stuttering-related things, she enjoys baking, writing, hiking, and college basketball. Fun fact – she once founded and ran a homemade cookie delivery company.

Chapter Leader

Amber Handon – I spent the early years of my life on the West Coast (Hawaii, California and Washington) and then moved to the East Coast (Rhode Island and Virginia) for high school. I ended up staying in Virginia for college, attending the College of William and Mary. Initially I was unsure what I wanted to study and what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. My interests and coursework guided me to the areas of Linguistics and Kinesiology, and eventually to the field of speech-language pathology. I fell in love with the profession! I attended the Communication Disorders program at the University of Virginia. Upon my graduation in 2007, I was hired as a school-based SLP with Charlottesville City Schools. I have the wonderful privilege to serve the preschool to 4th grade students, their families, and their teachers. I was initially drawn to the Charlottesville NSA group in the fall of 2014 as a way to support one of my students who stutters. She had never met another person who stutters until attending the group. Her relief and joy in knowing that she truly was not alone solidified in me the impact that this group has for people who stutter and those who support them. Now as the Chapter leader, I am working to continue Courtney’s mission for the group. We strive to be a source of hope and inspiration for those in our community!