About Kathleen Love
Bellingham, WA
Coast Salish Land:
Nooksack Tribal Territory
Pronouns: she/her
I'm a speech-language pathologist and literacy specialist based in Bellingham, Washington. I founded Rain City Reading in Seattle in 2015, moving north to Bellingham in 2021. I serve Bellingham clients at my office inside Catalyst Therapies, and see others in Washington state online.
My happy places include anywhere with salt water, especially if there’s a chance of spotting marine mammals. I’m an orca nut, and will talk about them just as long as I’ll talk about the <w> in two. I'm often in my garden, and never tire of making flower bouquets for friends. A year as an exchange student in The Netherlands sparked a lifelong love of exploring cultures and languages. I’m married and have two awesome kids, plus a little dog named Ziggy.
Most of my continuing education over the past two decades has focused on literacy development, learning and cognitive science, dyslexia, developmental language disorder, and ADHD. I've spent hundreds of hours studying spelling, reading, morphology, etymology, and orthography. I'm particularly grateful to those within the Structured Word Inquiry community whose knowledge and influence greatly shaped how I understand and teach.
In fall 2023, I committed to a year of sharing high quality resources to as many literacy educators as I could. I made some short YouTube videos, took the brave leap to start sharing on social media, began my newsletter, and started hosting community gatherings. That year connected me to some incredibly special people, who I’m grateful to partner with in learning, studying, and sharing.
I am committed to identifying, talking about, and changing systemic bias and privilege in my own life, professionally and personally. I stand against racism, ableism, sexism, queerphobia, Islamophobia, xenophobia, antisemitism, poverty, violence and neglect, as well as other systemic forms of oppression and bias.
“We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.”
- Maya Angelou
If you’re ready to support your child’s reading journey, I’d love to connect and learn more about your needs.