Our Team

Stephanie Hewitt is a Licensed Educational Psychologist and the founder of Learning Pathways Educational Psychology. With over 15 years of experience in school psychology and more than 1,000 psychoeducational evaluations completed, she has supported students, families, and school teams through some of their most complex and consequential decisions.

Stephanie earned her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and her Master’s and Educational Specialist degrees from California State University, Sacramento. She holds board certification in school neuropsychology through the American Board of School Neuropsychology, a distinction that reflects advanced training in brain-behavior relationships within educational settings and is relatively uncommon among educational psychologists.

Her clinical focus includes complex and high-masking autism presentations, ADHD, learning differences, and cases where concerns don’t fit neatly into a single category. She is known for clear, well-organized reports and feedback sessions that help families leave feeling informed and ready to advocate.

In addition to her clinical work, Stephanie serves as adjunct faculty in the School Psychology graduate program at California State University, Sacramento, where she teaches and mentors future school psychologists. She is the past president of the Northeastern California Association of School Psychologists and regularly presents at professional conferences and provides professional development to school districts.

She is also a parent of two school-aged children and has personally navigated the IEP process from the family side of the table. That experience shapes how she approaches every evaluation and every feedback conversation.

Ashley Burciaga is a Licensed Educational Psychologist with more than 15 years of experience supporting students, families, and school teams through comprehensive psychoeducational evaluation and consultation.

She earned her Bachelor’s degree from California State University, Sacramento, her Master’s degree from San Francisco State University, and her Doctor of Education from the University of San Francisco. Her approach is neurodiversity-affirming, culturally responsive, and focused on translating findings into recommendations that work in real life, not just on paper.

Ashley specializes in clarifying complex learner profiles and eligibility questions, particularly when overlapping learning, attention, and social-emotional factors make the picture hard to sort out. She is skilled at helping families and school teams understand what the data actually means for a specific student in a specific setting.

She is also a mom of two girls, which keeps her grounded in what families need most: clarity, honesty, and next steps they can actually act on.

Anna Mangino is a Licensed Educational Psychologist with over 15 years of experience supporting students ages 2 through 21 across a wide range of educational settings, including preschool through high school, residential programs, nonpublic schools, and public school districts in both New York and California.

She specializes in comprehensive psychoeducational evaluations and collaborative IEP development, with expertise in ADHD, learning differences, anxiety, autism spectrum profiles, and complex developmental needs.

Anna’s approach to evaluation starts with relationship. She believes that genuinely understanding a student, including their strengths, challenges, and experiences across settings, is the foundation of meaningful assessment. Her goal is to help families and educators build on what students do well, not just identify what’s hard.

Outside of her professional work, Anna is a mom to two energetic children who remind her regularly that no two learners develop the same way.

Lorena Byrod brings an unusually broad foundation to her work as a Licensed Educational Psychologist. She began her career as a speech therapist, working across public schools, nonpublic settings, and private practice before pursuing her Master’s in Education and becoming a credentialed school psychologist and later a Licensed Educational Psychologist.

That background in speech and language gives her a distinct lens on how communication, processing, and learning intersect, which is particularly useful in complex evaluations where concerns span multiple areas.

Lorena has worked with students from transitional kindergarten through 12th grade across a wide range of educational environments. Her approach centers on identifying the strategies and supports that help students succeed both academically and emotionally, and on making sure families feel confident about what comes next.

Cristina Vicens is a Licensed Educational Psychologist and board-certified school neuropsychologist who brings both professional expertise and deep personal investment to her work with students and families.

Originally from Puerto Rico, Cristina is a fluent Spanish speaker who understands firsthand what it means to navigate systems that were not always designed with your family’s background in mind. She brings cultural awareness and linguistic accessibility to her evaluations, and is able to conduct assessments in Spanish for families who prefer it or for whom it is their primary language.

Cristina holds board certification in school neuropsychology through the American Board of School Neuropsychology, reflecting advanced training in understanding how brain development and function affect learning and behavior in educational settings. She is deeply committed to neurodiversity-affirming practice and to evaluations that help students and families understand themselves with clarity and without shame.

As a parent herself, Cristina brings personal understanding of what families experience throughout the evaluation process, and works hard to make sure every family feels genuinely heard and supported.

Michele Custer is a Licensed Educational Psychologist and Nationally Certified School Psychologist with over 20 years of experience supporting children, families, and school teams. She provides comprehensive psychoeducational evaluations that help clarify learning, behavioral, and social-emotional needs and translate findings into practical, meaningful recommendations.

Michele has worked with students from preschool through high school across a wide range of settings, including traditional public schools, charter schools, alternative education programs, partial-hospitalization programs, and residential treatment settings. That breadth of experience allows her to understand complex profiles within very different educational and support contexts.

Her approach is collaborative, strengths-based, and centered on clear communication. Michele works closely with families and school teams so that evaluation results lead somewhere useful. Her goal is to help students better understand their own learning and build skills that support success both inside and outside the classroom.

Vanessa Garcia supports Learning Pathways through scheduling, coordination, and family communication. She works with Mindful Admins and is based in Washington state.

Vanessa is personally connected to the work. She partners with nonprofit organizations serving children on the autism spectrum and serves on the board of one such organization. She brings that perspective to every family interaction, making sure the administrative side of the process feels smooth, organized, and human.