
Melanie Christian
COTA, Clinical Director, Team Lead
Melanie is our Clinical Director and has over 20 years of pediatric experience. She has been with Building Futures since its opening in 2005. Melanie leads by example and enjoys mentoring new graduates and new OT’s in our profession. She strongly believes in seeing things from the eyes of the child and meeting the needs of each child individually in order for them to participate in their daily lives.

Kelly Cain
COTA, Team Lead, clinical manager
Kelly became an OTA in 2001 and has 20 years of experience. She has been with the Building Futures family since 2007! She is a certified autism specialist and her passion is working with these children and families, so that they can meet their goals to the fullest potential! She loves being able to make a difference in each child’s everyday life! Kelly is a lead at our Monroe location and helps mentor, lead and train other staff members at this location. She believes in passing down her knowledge to others is at best benefit to the entire community!

Brittany Keen
LOTR, Team Lead
Brittany is earning a certification in Floortime DIR and will be one of only 12 practitioners in Louisiana. She also has personal experience with her own daughter being in the NICU and sweet little Alaina has actually already graduated from therapy!

Anna Dearman
LOTR, CLC, Team Lead
Anna attended Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans and graduated in 2012 with a Master of Occupational Therapy. She has extensive knowledge and experience in pediatric orthopedic conditions including splinting prosthetics and equipment management from her time spent working at Shriner’s Hospitals for Children. She is a Certified Lactation Counselor and is currently working towards international board certification by completing the requirements to sit for the IBCLC exam. She is a tethered oral tissue (TOTS) trained provider, enabling her to establish a pre and post frenectomy plan of care tailored to each child. She works with dentists, ENTS, and physicians to perform functional feeding/oral motor function assessments on the bottle, breast, and solid feeding pre procedure and is able to collaborate with recommended release providers to develop a plan of care to meet your family’s needs. Anna enjoys working for Building Futures because it gives her the opportunity to serve the needs of families in our community that would not otherwise have access to lactation care.


Miranda Baer
COTA
Miranda graduated from BPCC with her OTA degree in December 2020. She has been with Building Futures since March 2021. She has a passion for helping the pediatric population thrive in occupational therapy. She enjoys working with our wonderful staff at the Ruston clinic and assisting the children in our community. In her free time, she likes hunting and traveling.

Jonann Arrant
LOTR
Jonann is excited to have been in the very first certification class in the US for the Evaluation of Ayres Sensory Integration! She loves being able to talk with families about their goals they want to accomplish for their child and establishing a plan of care that is not only functional but also important to the family!

Jana Ferchaud
LOTR
Jana graduated from the University of Louisiana at Monroe’s Occupational Therapy program in 2006. Throughout her experience as an Occupational Therapist, she has worked primarily with pediatrics in the areas of early intervention, school system, and outpatient pediatric therapy. Her mom was a kindergarten teacher for 34 years, so she knew at an early age that she wanted to work with children, but had a deep desire to work within the medical field. The field of pediatric Occupational Therapy has allowed her to get a chance to do just that!! She remembers some of her first pediatric patients from over 16 years ago. Through the years, each patient of hers has left an imprint on her heart. Building Futures has such a wonderful team that she is thankful for and it brings her joy to be a part of our pediatric Occupational Therapy team!

Colin Brooks
COTA
Colin graduated from ULM’s OTA program In 2021 and recently joined the Building Futures about 6 months ago. She has a passion for finding creative ways to make working towards goals fun and functional. She’s also a part of the awesome hippotherapy team.

Kristen Wallace
COTA
Kristen graduated from ULM’s COTA program in 2015 with plans to work with children. She worked with adults for 8 years before joining the Building Futures team in 2023. Kristen is excited to help every child reach their goals! In my spare time I love to be with my family and our pups. We love all outdoor activities and are very active in our church.

Rae Dickson
COTA
Rae graduated from Louisiana State University with her Bachelors of Science in May 2021. Since then, she has attended ULM Occupational Therapy Assistant Program and graduated December 2022. Rae is excited to begin her career with the Building Futures PediatricTherapy team. She has a strong passion to work with children and help them reach their highest potential through fun and creative ways. It brings her so much joy to see our kid’s smiling faces as they meet their goals.

Macie Branch
MOT
Macie earned her Master of Occupational Therapy degree from LSU Health Shreveport in 2020 and recently joined the Building Futures team. She loves getting to work with children and coming up with creative and fun ways to help each child reach their goals.

Ashleigh Colvin
OTR
Ashleigh has worked as an occupational therapy practitioner since 2016 and continued her education by completing her master’s degree through ULM in 2020. She is passionate about using creative play that incorporates a child’s interest during sessions to promote the skills needed for everyday life.

Baylen Harris
COTA
Baylen is able to meet any child at their level and loves the challenge and fun of helping them do hard work while they are having so much fun! He also has training in complex feeding and swallowing issues.

Jessica Huff
COTA, Hippotherapy Program Lead
Jessica has a passion for both children and animals. Recently, she has been able to combine her two loves with Hippotherapy by getting her certification in this specialized area. She enjoys being able to witness and experience the emotion, sensory input and problem solving of a child when working with the horses on the ranch!

Chase Owens
COTA
Chase is from El Dorado, AR. He graduated from SACC’s OTA program in 2021 and joined our team at Building Futures in May, 2022. Chase has a true passion for working with children and genuinely takes his kiddos’ success with Occupational Therapy to the next level. Not only does Chase work at our Ruston clinic, but he also works with our great team members at our Hippotherapy program at the Owl Center. Chase enjoys working with the other team members at Building Futures and learning from the best!

Jennifer Reeves
LOTR, CEO, Owner
Jennifer is one of our owners and has been practicing OT for more than 20 years. She has a highly creative mind and enjoys making both clinics fun and functional for our children. She is immensely proud of the growth of our company and is thrilled to have such an amazing team!

Amber Soignier
COTA
I attended ULM Occupational Therapy Assistant Program and graduated December 2019. I have over a year experience working in pediatric therapy, however have only been with Building Futures since September of 2022. I was born and raised in Lafayette, LA and moved to Ruston in 2017 to go to school. I enjoy walking the local parks with my dog and doing arts and crafts! Working with our committed families at Building Futures brings so much joy; I get to share the smiling faces of our kiddos and caregivers as they meet their goals.

Hadley Swartz
COTA
Hadley graduated from ULM’s OTA program in 2018, but she has loved this profession since she was a child. She has seen firsthand the benefits occupational therapy can bring to a child and their family. She strives to help her kids reach their highest potential imaginable through fun and exciting ways.

Jennifer Sanderson
COTA
Jennifer graduated from ULM with her associates in Occupational Therapy in May 1998. She has a strong passion to work with children and loves to see their smiling faces. In my free time I enjoy working out, tennis and taking care of my four teenagers and husband of 20 years

Ashley Miers
COTA
Ashley graduated from ULM in 2017 with an Occupational Therapy Assistant degree. It is exciting to work with children helping them to meet their highest potential! I am married with 2 children, love to garden, fish and spend time with my family.

Sarah Nguyen
MOT
Sarah grew up in Ruston, Louisiana. Graduated from Louisiana Tech University with a Bachelor of Science and received a Master of Occupational Therapy at the College of Saint Mary’s. Working with children and their spontaneity brings her joy. She hopes to be able to guide your child to be the greatest they can be. In her free time, she also enjoys reading and doing crafts, while listening to classical music.

Katie Whitaker
COTA
Katie loved seeing firsthand how functional play and home exercises changed her daughter’s outcomes of being born with arthrogryposis and her son being a NICU baby! This is what helped her decide to be a COTA. She joined our team in August of 2020 and has been a wonderful addition with her positive and upbeat attitude!

Kristin Wyble
COTA
Kristin has a passion for kiddos with sensory processing disorders and she is finishing up her certification in Yoga Calm. She has been with Building Futures since 2016.