​Ala Refai graduated with a Master of Health Science from the University of Toronto and is certified with the College of Audiologists and Speech-Language Pathologists of Ontario (CASLPO). Ala has experience working in hospital, school board, research, and clinical settings with children and adults along with their families. Ala has worked with concerns regarding early language development, articulation, fluency, reading/writing, motor speech disorders, and Autism Spectrum Disorder. Ala has also worked in various settings with adults who have swallowing difficulties, aphasia, voice disorders, head and neck cancer, complex care needs, and neurodegenerative disorders. She is passionate about providing family-centered, evidence-based, and culturally sensitive care to clients and families.

Ala is currently pursuing a doctorate degree at the University of Toronto exploring caregiver quality of life in the head and neck cancer population with dysphagia (i.e., swallowing impairments). Ala is also dedicated to promoting diverse representation and knowledge in the
speech-language pathology (SLP) field by translating SLP-related information in 10+ languages with a wonderful team of volunteers (@slppoc).