About Us

Casey Ames started Harkla over 4 years ago with a mission to make an impact in the special needs community. He grew up in a family of educators and always knew he wanted to be involved in education, but didn’t want to be a teacher. At an early age, Casey had an entrepreneurial spirit with his lawn business and self designed t-shirts.

Harkla has allowed Casey to combine his entrepreneurial ambitions with his desire to work in education.

When Casey isn’t coming up with ways to help the special needs community, you’ll find him either on a soccer field or hiking in the mountains with his wife.

Sensory Quirk: Casey can’t stand the tactile feeling and visual of heavily used, semi beat-up & stained plastic Tupperware!

Nicole Przychodzen joined Harkla in 2017 and took up the banner of high-quality products and great customer experiences.

Nicole is a mom of five boys and has spent countless hours sitting in IEP meetings and OT waiting rooms. She has also worked with kids on the spectrum both in-home and in the classroom.

With empathy, Nicole carries our mission that every individual, regardless of disability, should have the opportunity to reach their highest potential.

Sensory Quirk: Nicole strongly dislikes the smell of leftover tomato sauce!

In 2018, Amelia Tiedemann brought her talents to our team as brand manager. She works very closely with our marketing platform and helps design & manage our product research & development. She’s the one who illustrates all the fun characters you see on our website, social media and more!

A lover of art and design since childhood, Amelia is also an artist and illustrator. She enjoys painting landscapes scenes from near & far, from both her hometown of Boise, ID, all the way to travels with her husband, Casey, in Patagonia.

Amelia is deeply passionate about your customer experience & journey with our company from start to finish. She aims to create a fun & caring aesthetic through Harkla’s digital & physical communications.

Sensory Quirk: Amelia shivers thinking about and actually experiencing the feeling of chunky & dense cotton balls!

Samantha Castillo joined our team in 2020 as the Executive Assistant to the CEO, Casey. She works alongside Casey in a variety of capacities from your average EA duties, like scheduling events, to photography and videography work for the team.

Samantha's favorite and most fulfilling part of working for Harkla is hearing stories daily from our Harkla families who have found joy and relief from our products.

When Samantha is not working hard for Harkla, she can be found somewhere with her husband and their old lady dog, enjoying live music, the outdoors, old horror movies, or tasty vegan cuisine.

Sensory Quirk: Samantha experiences that if one foot gets wet, the other one HAS to get wet too... same goes for her hands!

Jessica joined Harkla in 2021 with the goal to create as much high quality, informative, and fun content as possible. As a content creator, she works to help families, therapists, educators, and anyone else living / working with children lead happy, healthy, successful lives!

With a background as a Pediatric Occupational Therapy Assistant, Jessica has the knowledge to create new ideas that are not only fun and motivating, but that also provide the "just-right" challenge for children of all ages and abilities. Using a variety of platforms (including podcasts, video courses, blog posts, and more), she hopes to inspire people around the world.

Jessica is the mother to a spunky 7-year-old boy and two crazy kittens. She spends most of her time entertaining them, hiking, swimming, and attempting to travel to new places.

Sensory Quirk: Jessica needs a foot rest when sitting in a chair or tall stool - she gets super uncomfortable and distracted without a place to put her feet!

Rachel Harrington is a Pediatric Occupational Therapy Assistant with 7 years of experience. She joined Harkla's content creation team in January 2021 with the goal of spreading her knowledge of all things sensory with the world!

Rachel is deeply passionate about making kids feel confident and shine in their own skin. She is always on a mission to help families, therapists & kiddos navigate the sensory world. She's a big fan of how well Harkla treats their customers and so happy to be part of it!

Rachel loves hiking, playing ping pong, and spending time with her husband, dog and new baby!

Sensory Quirk: Rachel’s quirk is definitely auditory processing! She can't tell you how many times she tells her husband to 'turn down the tv!’!