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ASHA's highest achievement, the Honors of the Association, have been granted to five outstanding individuals for 2003. The awards were conferred in November at ASHA's Annual Convention in Chicago.
Diane M. Bless
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Diane M. Diane M. Bless, professor in the Department of Communicative Disorders and the Department of Surgery Division of Otolaryngology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW), director of Voice Services at the UW Hospitals and Clinics, and director of the Vocal Function Laboratories and Clinics at UW's Waisman Center on Human Development, has been a pioneer, during her 30-year career, in the areas of measurement and the interdisciplinary treatment of voice disorders, a teacher/mentor of extraordinary skill and kindness, and an outstanding contributor, in myriad ways, to the field of communication sciences and disorders.
Bless (BA, San Diego State University; MS, University of Redlands; PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison) began her career at the University of Washington and then returned to UW in 1971, first for post-doctoral work, then as a research associate at the Waisman Center, followed by two years on the clinical faculty. In 1976 she joined the Department of Communicative Disorders as an assistant professor, becoming a full professor in 1986. Her career has been marked by innovation: in course development; in the advancement of the instrumental measurement of voice quality and laryngeal physiology; in joint treatment models between otolaryngology and speech-lan-guage pathology for voice management post-surgery. Her career-long collaboration with otolaryngologist Minoru Hirano of Kurume University in Japan—where she served as visiting scientist and then as visiting professor from 1986–1989—led to ground-breaking research on vocal function documenting improved acoustic, aerodynamic, and videostroboscopic measures and to the clinical application of these measures.
The text, Videostroboscopic Examination of the Larynx (1993), considered a classic by experts in the field, was a direct result of Bless' seminal work in Japan. She has also authored or co-authored more than 100 publications and delivered more than 300 presentations and research-to-practice workshops throughout the world. As a measure of the high quality of her research achievements, she's earned continuous funding from the National Institutes of Health for the past 18 years — as well as the accolades of her colleagues. "She is a true translational scientist whose work has been innovative, rigorous, and on the cutting edge," says Robert E. Hillman of the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Harvard Medical School, and the MGH Institute of Health Professions. Her work in Japan, he adds, "not only changed the clinical practice of voice as it is today, but also substantiated the role for speech-language pathologists as diagnosticians in this field."
Bless, an ASHA Fellow, has been active in professional societies throughout her career including the Wisconsin Speech-Language-Hearing Association (WSHA), the American Cleft Palate Association, the International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics, the American Laryngological Association, the Collegium Medicorum Theatri, and the Voice Foundation of which she currently serves on the Scientific Advisory Board. Her work for ASHA has included service as Convention program chair, as chair of the Professional Meetings and Service Board, and as coordinator of Special Interest Division 3, Voice and Voice Disorders. She has also served in various editorial capacities on the Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, the Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, Folia Phoniatrica, the Journal of Clinical Voice Disorders, and others. She is the recipient of the Honors of WSHA as well as many awards for outstanding research presentations.
Bless has also been mentor to a generation of scholars who are now university researchers, teachers, and directors of major clinics internationally. Those who have studied under Bless invariably mention not only her scholarship and research, but her human qualities and her "impeccable character." In my opinion, says Nelson Roy of the University of Utah, "you will not find a finer human being. Now that I am responsible for mentoring PhD students of my own, I often find myself wondering, 'What would Diane do in this situation?' She is the gold standard."
Jerilyn (Jeri) A.
Logemann
Northwestern University
Jerilyn (Jeri) A. Logemann, two-time ASHA president and Ralph and Jean Sundin Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders and professor in the Departments of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery and Neurology at Northwestern University (NU), is a clinician, researcher, teacher, and leader of unassailable international repute. "Dysphagia" is virtually synonymous with the name of Jeri Logemann.
Logemann (BS, MA, and PhD, NU) began her career in 1970 as a research associate at NU. By 1983 she was chair of her department, a full professor, and had already produced a prolific body of what we now call evidence-based research—and did it well before that term became a standard part of academic currency. Her publication record continues to grow and her work continues its impressive funding record: Since 1975 Logemann has been a principal or co-principal investigator for 18 grants, with funding from the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. Her work includes several hundred articles, 55 book chapters, a dozen edited journal issues, four major texts on swallowing disorders, and the ongoing Dysphagia Audio Digest that reviews current dysphagia literature quarterly.
Not only has Logemann created the field of dysphagia from where there was sparse research and even less information concerning diagnosis or management, but she has also imparted her discoveries through workshops, seminars, and short courses, thus opening up the field to the speech-language pathology community and to the recognition of its members' vital role in the treatment of the disorder. The first edition of her book Evaluation and Treatment of Swallowing Disorders (1983) constituted the core of knowledge during the early years of dysphagia research and her continuing work has led to the acceptance of the modified barium swallow procedure as the standard in the examination of the oropharyngeal swallow. Logemann also secured funding for the Communication Sciences and Disorders Clinical Trials Research Group (the first such endeavor in the field bringing together clinicians and researchers to answer important clinical questions) and today still leads the effort to ensure the continuity of clinical trials work.
Logemann's professional service contributions are legion. Aside from her two terms as president of ASHA and service as a Legislative Councilor from Illinois, she has served the Association on multiple boards and committees, including the Long Range Strategic Planning Board, Public Information Task Force, Nominations and Election Committee, Scientific and Professional Programs Board, and Resolutions Committee. Logemann, an ASHA Fellow, has also been a member of the Task Force on Rehabilitation of the Illinois Cancer Council, served on the Multicultural Issues Committee of the Illinois Speech-Language-Hearing Association, the Program Committee of the Head and Neck Society, and on the Illinois Cancer Council Board of Trustees, was secretary-treasurer as well as president of the Dysphagia Research Society, and is chair of the Dysphagia Committee of the International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics. She has also served, and continues to serve, as a reviewer or in an editorial capacity on over 20 academic journals including Dysphagia, Gastroenterology, Head & Neck, Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica, Archives of Oral Biology, Oncology, and the Journal of Pediatrics.
Thanks to Logemann, says Barbara Sonies of the National Institutes of Health, "The practice of swallowing and swallowing disorders is now one of the fastest growing clinical areas in health care and in school-based populations, is part of our scope of practice, included in our standards, and is part of the curriculum of speech-language pathology programs." Much of this, Sonies adds, "is due to the diligence, dedication, foresight, and leadership of Jeri A. Logemann, outstanding academician, researcher, leader, and visionary."
George T.Mencher
Dalhousie University
George T. Mencher, professor of audiology at Dalhousie University, was responsible, it can justifiably be said, for developing speech and hearing services and bring ing speech-language pathology and audiology education to Nova Scotia.
Mencher (BA, George Pepperdine University; MA California State University at Long Beach; PhD, University of Michigan) came to Halifax in 1973 as director of the Nova Scotia Hearing and Speech Clinic (NSHSC), which, at the time, had seven staff and three openings. When he arrived, the closest professional educational program in the speech and hearing sciences was 1,200 miles away in Toronto. Mencher immediately went into gear. He obtained government grants to fund training of Canadian students, began working with Dalhousie University to establish training opportunities, and began recuitment to fill those three vacancies at NSHSC. He accomplished the latter in a year. In two years all the treatment facilities in Halifax were fully staffed. Today the NSHSC has a staff of 110.
When Dalhousie agreed to start the School of Human Communication Disorders, Mencher helped in recruiting personnel, developing the curriculum, and even designing the facility. He then took on the challenge of convincing the Dalhousie Senate that ASHA's master's entry-level model was appropriate for Canada. His success at gaining acceptance for the Atlantic provinces soon reverberated throughout Canada and the standard of training now in place in Canada is largely owing to his efforts, as is the reciprocity agreement that exists between the American and Canadian professional associations.
Mencher has been equally energetic in developing the Canadian Association of Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists (CASLPA), serving as its vice president and president, and organizing and chairing the first CASLPA convention (this year will be the 27th). He also worked toward the implementation of the first Canadian Accreditation of Service Programs standards—accreditation for programs—and helped develop the Canadian equivalent of ASHA's Certificate of Clinical Competence—certification for professionals.
Mencher's work internationally is highly regarded. It is in this area that he "has done an inestimable service to ASHA," says Marion Downs, professor emerita of the University of Colorado, creating valuable good will in Latin America. Mencher has been a consultant to programs around the world and has worked as a volunteer professional in Antigua, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Chile, Nicaragua, Thailand, and China to develop programs, train personnel, and provide services. He is active in the International Society of Audiology, serving on various committees and was president of its XXII International Congress of Audiology. In addition, he recently completed an epidemiological study of the entire country of Costa Rica to determine the incidence and prevalence of hearing loss in children.
An ASHA Fellow, Mencher is a widely published researcher of scholarly articles and eight books. His articles have appeared in the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, Audiology, the American Journal of Audiology, Ear and Hearing, Scandinavian Audiology, and the Journal of the American Academy of Audiology. His books include Early Identification of Hearing Loss, International Perspectives of Communication Disorders, and Audiology and Auditory Dysfunction. Mencher has also served ASHA on many committees and boards. He was a Legislative Councilor for 17 years, was chair of the Honors Committee and the Joint Committee on Infant Hearing, a member of the Professional Services Board, the Ethical Practices Board, the Council on Professional Standards, the Council on Academic Accreditation, and other ASHA committees.
Linda Hood of Louisiana State University calls Mencher "one of those rare visionaries who has focused his professional attention on communication disorders to the benefit of his patients, students, colleagues, and the public at large." Moe Bergman, currently of Tel Aviv, Israel, adds that Mencher is "one of the most constructively active members of our profession over the period of its growth and maturation in the last half of the 20th century and in the present."
Harry N. Seymour
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Harry N. Seymour, professor emeritus of the Department of Communication Disorders of the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass), has devoted his professional life to the service of underserved and under-represented populations, specifically to the realization of two objectives: recruitment, funding, and training of graduate students; and research and scholarship in the development of culturally and linguistically appropriate assessment and treatment methods for African American children. And his commitment in both areas has paid off.
From the time he was a junior faculty member — he began at UMass in 1971— Seymour's interest in multicultural issues was already apparent. He helped create and then chaired the Committee for the Recruitment of Minority Students for Graduate Study in Social and Behavioral Sciences. Later he became a member of ASHA's Advisory Committee on Recruitment of Minority Students. Seymour's success in this area can be quantified: In addition to hundreds of students he has taught, he is directly responsible for the recruitment of 60 minority graduate students and has mentored numerous doctoral students who have all gone on to complete their degrees. And Seymour (BA, Howard University; MA and PhD, Ohio State University) has, throughout his 31-year career, obtained funding—in an amount exceeding $5 million, of which half has been targeted specifically for the support of these students.
Seymour also has been successful in obtaining funding for his research on the speech and language behavior of African American children. His most recent award, from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, covering 1998–2004, in the amount of $2.7 million, is a contract for the "Development and Validation of a Speech and Language Test for Children Who Speak Nonstandard English: A Study of Black English." Seymour's multidisciplinary research team includes colleagues from Smith College's department of Psychology, UMass' department of Linguistics, and the Psychological Corporation. Three tests have resulted from the work of Seymour's team: Diagnostic Evaluation of Language Variation-Screening Test (DELV-ST), Diagnostic Evaluation of Language Variation-Criterion Referenced Test (DELV-CRT), and Diagnostic Evaluation of Language Variation-Standardized Version (DELV-SV).
These tests help prevent the inappropriate placement of children in special education by distinguishing between language difference and language disorder. They are the only tests that specifically elicit non-Mainstream American English (MAE) patterns, such as African American English, and do not penalize children for producing them. The utterances instead form the basis for classifying children as speakers of MAE or not. Currently existing language tests do not assess dialect status and thus do not differentiate children's response patterns that are unique to their dialect from patterns that reflect disorders. The result is often misdiagnosis of children who do not speak MAE and misplacement of them into special education programs.
ASHA has benefited greatly from Seymour's long career. He has served the Association in many capacities, including as a member of the Scientific and Professional Meetings Board, the Continuing Education Board, and the Task Force on Research, and has been editorial consultant for several of ASHA's journals. Seymour has also been active with the National Black Association for Speech-Language and Hearing (NBASLH) and with the Massachusetts Speech-Language-Hearing Association. He is an ASHA Fellow and a Fellow of the Kellogg National Fellowship, a recipient of the Honors of NBASLH and of the Mississippi Senate, and of ASHA's Multicultural Service Awards and Editor's Award for "Difference Versus Deficit in Child African American English" in Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools.
"It is virtually impossible to conduct research on the speech and language behavior of African American children without finding reference to the seminal work of Harry Seymour," says Sandra C. Holley, former president of ASHA. Through his work and his students, "Dr. Seymour's legacy as an ardent advocate of multiculturalism will continue far into this millennium."
Jerry V. Tobias
Tobias Consulting
Jerry V. Tobias, principal consultant of Tobias Consulting, ASHA Fellow, and ASHA member since 1954, “is not the kind of man who would ever accept that we do things in a certain way because they have always been done that way," says Laura Ann Wilber of Northwestern University. Instead, "He has always challenged us to do better—not to change for change's sake, but to change when it will make a positive difference. He is a thinker and a doer—and one who has made his students, his colleagues, and his associations better for it."
Tobias (AB, University of Missouri; MA, University of Iowa; PhD, Case Western Reserve University; MBA, University of Oklahoma) has held academic positions at Ball State University, Case Western Reserve University, the University of Texas, the University of Oklahoma, and the City University of New York Graduate Center, and also taught occasionally at the University of Connecticut and the University of Rhode Island. He's directed research programs for the Federal Aviation Administration and the Naval Submarine Medical Research Laboratory. And he's consulted widely in occupational noise control, hearing conservation, and psychoacoustics. Tobias has taught courses in just about everything—all aspects of audiology, aphasia, speech-language pathology, even English composition and grammar.
Many professionals remember Tobias from his 1958 booklet The Decibel, which taught, among other things, how to do logarithms in your head. He is the editor and contributing author of the two-volume Foundations of Modern Auditory Theory (1970, 1972)— considered by many as a seminal work in the field—as well as co-editor of the two-volume Hearing Research and Theory (1981, 1983). He has contributed chapters to texts and written and reviewed articles for, among other publications, the Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, the Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, the American Journal of Psychology, and the Noise Control Engineering Journal. He has written on a broad range of subjects— from speech audiometry to psychology to noise and flight to the Oklahoma licensing bill to the etymology of proper names in the Oz books.
Tobias has been an ASHA Legislative Councilor from Oklahoma and from Connecticut, and has served the Association as chair of the ASHA Management Study Committee, as Vice President for Education and Scientific Affairs, and as chair of the Publications Board. He served on the Governmental Regulations Committee and the Executive Council of the Oklahoma Speech-Language-Hearing Association. After he moved to Connecticut, Tobias became active in the Connecticut Speech-Language-Hearing Association, editing its newsletter, serving on its Executive Board, and chairing its Supporting Personnel and Publications Committees. He's served in various capacities in the Acoustical Society of America. He is a charter member of the International Society for Psychophysics and a founding member of the International Commission on Biological Effects of Noise (ICBEN). He wrote the Constitution for ICBEN, served as its first Secretary, then chaired the Commission, and continues to be a member of its Executive Committee.
Tobias was an Office of Vocational Rehabilitation pre-doctoral fellow. He is a fellow of the Acoustical Society of America. He holds the Honors of the Oklahoma Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Among other commendations, he has received the Flight Safety Foundation Publications Award, the L. Frank Baum Memorial Award, the Navy Department's Superior Performance Award, and the Case Western Reserve Department of Communication Sciences Distinguished Alumnus Award.
Finally, a word on style: Jean M. Lovrinic of Temple University says that some people might view Tobias as "a bit of an eccentric. I'd argue that those folks don't really know him nor do they understand his rule system—his gamesmanship." She explains, "In the more than 30 years I have known him, I have found him to be a contemplative, gentle, and brilliant individual who challenges each of us to critically evaluate and act outside the proverbial box. He is patient, helpful, and supportive of those of us who lack his creativity and insight."
Donald W. Warren
University of North Carolina
Donald W. Donald W. Warren of the University of North Carolina (UNC) Craniofacial Center is one of the more unique individuals in the field of communication science and disorders. Not only has he "trained as dentist, specialized as a prosthodontist, been educated as a physiologist, and practiced as a speech scientist," says John E. Riski of the Center for Craniofacial Disorders in Atlanta, but he is perhaps "the most prominent researcher in vocal tract aerodynamics over the past five decades."
During postdoctoral work in 1962 with respiratory physiologist Arthur DuBois, Warren developed hydrokinetic equations that enabled him to calculate the velopharyngeal orifice area without invasive procedures and without the risk of x-ray. The landmark article he published based on these findings set the stage for many basic and applied research studies that have since been published by Warren himself, his colleagues, and students. His use of this technology and his knowledge that the entire velopharyngeal-nasal system has to be taken into account in speech production, led him to other findings—including contributions to understanding the use of dental prostheses to support speech improvement in people with velopharyngeal insufficiency or incompetence. Warren's work has significantly influenced decisions made by speech clinicians, surgeons, and dentists who work with patients with cleft palate. Today, it would be virtually impossible to find a published article dealing with pressure-flow issues in the cleft-palate population that does not mention Warren's work.
Warren was central in founding the UNC Craniofacial Center, which has maintained a reputation for excellence in clinical and research achievement. He served as its administrative director from 1963 until his retirement in 2000 (from 1989–2000 he was also research professor of otolaryngology in UNC's School of Medicine; earlier he served as professor and chair of UNC's department of dental ecology). The Craniofacial Center has served thousands of patients and provided instruction for hundreds of speech-lan-guage pathologists, dentists, and surgeons. Professionals come to the center to learn about the role of air pressure and flow in speech production and about assessment and treatment of velopharyngeal inadequacy and speech.
Warren (BS and DDS, University of North Carolina; MS and PhD, University of Pennsylvania) has been a member of ASHA since 1963, serving on the Publications Board and as reviewer for the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research (JSLHR). He and his colleagues were also recipients of a 1997 JSLHR Editor's Award for the best research paper in the area of speech. He is an ASHA Fellow, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Kuopio in Finland and the honors of the American Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association.
Michael P. Karnell of the University of Iowa tells a story that puts Warren's work into historical perspective. Early in Karnell's career he was an assistant to Charles Van Riper at Western Michigan University. Van Riper once told Karnell that much of the research that happens in communication science and disorders can be thought of as lines of inquiry that run in many different directions on a two-dimensional plane, some lines running parallel, some intersecting, and some running against one another. "But on rare occasions, a researcher will introduce an innovation that serves as a 'perpendicular' on the plane, affecting and changing everyone's thinking." Warren's introduction of fluid dynamics theory to the study of velopharyngeal inadequacy, concludes Karnell, is "an excellent example of what Van Riper described as a 'perpendicular.' An entire generation of researchers and patients owe a debt of gratitude to Dr. Warren."
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