ASHA is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2005 Advancing Academic-Research Careers (AARC) and Students Preparing for Academic & Research Careers (SPARC) awards. Both awards were established to support one of the intended outcomes of ASHA's Focused Initiative on the Doctoral Shortage, which is to increase the number of PhD teacher-scholars and students who choose higher education as a career option sufficient to fill academic faculty/researcher vacancies in human communication sciences and disorders over the next decade.
AARC Award
The AARC award program is aimed at reducing the shortage of PhD-level faculty in the Communication Sciences and Disorders discipline by encouraging new faculty who are at the beginning of their academic-research careers to remain in higher education. Recipients will use the award monies for activities such as mentoring research in students, conducting personal research, and improving teaching knowledge and skills.
2006 AARC Award Recipients
Ryan Branski, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Cornell University
Primary Mentor — Susan Thibeault, University of Wisconsin–Madison
Lisa Edmonds, University of Florida–Gainesville
Primary Mentor — John Rosenbek, University of Florida–Gainesville
Tiffany Hogan, University of Arizona
Primary Mentor — Judith Gierut, Indiana University
John McCarthy, Ohio University
Primary Mentor — Jeffery Higginbotham, University at Buffalo
Mahalakshmi Sivasankar, Purdue University
Primary Mentor — Katherine Verdolini, University of Pittsburgh
Kathy Vander Werff, Syracuse University
Primary Mentor — Carolyn Brown, The University of Iowa
SPARC Award
The SPARC award is designed as a strategy to promote PhD career development for communication sciences and disorders undergraduate and graduate students. Recipients will use the award monies to provide opportunities such as enhanced educational mentorship experiences that prepare students for successful PhD education and academic careers, travel to enhance research exposure, and research training under a mentor.
2006 SPARC Award Recipients
Aaron Johnson, Rush University
Mentor — Gail Kempster, Rush University
Andrea Boh, University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire
Mentor — Linda Carpenter, University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire
Cory Portnuff, University of Colorado at Boulder
Mentor — Kathryn Arehart, University of Colorado at Boulder
Carolyn Potts, Eastern Michigan University
Mentor — Sara Ginsberg, Eastern Michigan University
Anna Clark, University of Colorado at Boulder
Mentor — Donald Finan, University of Colorado at Boulder
Heather Frost, Case Western Reserve University
Mentor — Stacey Williams, Case Western Reserve University
Christina Kuo, University of Wisconsin–Madison
Mentor — Gary Weismer, University of Wisconsin–Madison
Nicole Beck, Hofstra University
Mentor — Ronald Bloom, Hofstra University
Meredith Oakey, Vanderbilt University
Mentor — Ralph Ohde, Vanderbilt University
See list of past AARC and SPARC award recipients.