Candidate Video Transcripts
Note: These transcripts were typed from a recording of the interviews and not copied from an original script.
President-Elect
Robert M. Augustine
Question 1: Why are you running for a position on the ASHA Board?
It's very exciting, and it makes you feel very honored for your colleagues to ask you or invite you to do something like this. These are professions that I care very much about, and anytime my colleagues ask me to join them in an endeavor like this, I will do everything I can to assist them. This is really important to me. I've cared about my association from the beginning of my career, and whether that's at regional, state, or national levels, if your colleagues ask you, I feel a personal responsibility to assist them. This is extremely important to me, but even more so, I think, is how humbled I feel that they would invite me. So I feel deeply honored. It's something I will do, whether it's in this particular way or another way. Anytime my colleagues say to me we need your help with something, I will say yes to them if I can. These are disciplines I care very much about, and this is something that I will put all my passion behind. And that's why I've agreed to do this.
Question 2: What would be your top priority be if elected to your respective position?
I think one of the most important things about ASHA, for me, has been the member experience. And focusing on the member experience will be my top priority. I think all of us in our lives have a trusted friend that we go to in good times and in bad to get advice and guidance. For me, as a member of ASHA, ASHA's always been like that for me. When I needed professional guidance, I've turned to ASHA. When I had an issue I wanted them to resolve, I turned to ASHA. I think that an exciting part about our association in the last several years has been its growth. But in getting so large, it can be complicated for a member at any time in her or her career to figure out how do I connect with my association? I'm going to work really hard to see if I can help our members experience the same kind of positive outcomes I've experienced by going to the association and finding the things that they need, whether that's things that exist already like the Special Interest Divisions. Or if there are things they're telling me that we need to consider as a way in, I would give that very serious consideration. For me, I know, clearly, that enhancing the member experience will be my top priority. I think it's been really important in my development as a professional. And I want to bring that to more of our members.
Robert Burkard
Question 1: Why are you running for a position on the ASHA Board?
Well, although a faculty member in a speech and hearing department for most of my academic career, much of my academic life has been highly interprofessional. My dissertation advisor was a pediatric neurologist. I hold an appointment in a department of otolaryngology. My current position is as Chair of the Department of Rehabilitation Science in a school of public health and health professions. In this capacity, I've come to understand the value of interprofessional education, as well as the culture and practice of physical therapy, occupational therapy, and public health. As a member of ASHA's Healthcare Economics Committee, I have learned that we must practice in interdisciplinary teams in order to optimize value in our healthcare delivery. I am running for the position of ASHA President Elect in order to provide my unique perspective of not only our professions, but of related allied health, public health, and medical professions. If elected, it will be my mission to promote interdisciplinary collaboration so that speech, language pathology and audiology not only survives, but actually thrives in an increasingly interdependent healthcare environment.
Question 2: What would be your top priority be if elected to your respective position?
Planning for the imminent changes in healthcare must be ASHA's top priority. These changes will have profound and long-lasting consequences on healthcare delivery and reimbursement. We must rethink our education of our PhD students so that they can provide the evidence base required for us to engage in best clinical practices. We need better assessment tools so that we can demonstrate the value of our care. Interprofessional education and practice must become a core component of our clinical training programs. We need to advertise ourselves as the experts in human communication. We need to educate all stakeholders that our services are necessary for our clients to live independently longer, to optimize the quality of life not only for our clients, but also for their informal caregivers. And ultimately, that our services are essential healthcare benefits.
Judith Page
Question 1: Why are you running for a position on the ASHA Board?
When I first got a call telling me that I had been nominated for President Elect of ASHA and asking if I would consider running for that position, my first reaction was, "Oh, my goodness." And then I started thinking about something that I have been hearing a lot about in the social media and in our regular media. This -- a concept called paying it forward where people do a good turn for somebody, they pay for somebody else's meal behind them in a drive-thru line or they'll pay somebody else's restaurant bill not for any reason, other than that they have the resources to be able to do it and they choose to do that. And I started thinking about my career and what's happened to me over the years. And from the very beginning when I was a school speech language pathologist, through the years that I've spent in higher education, through my experiences with the State Speech and Hearing Association as President and then as Chair of our State Licensure Board, any time I got into trouble and I needed some help or I need some information or I needed somebody to be an advocate, I turned to ASHA, and ASHA was there. And I thought about it, and I thought ASHA was there because somebody back then was paying it forward. And I always talk to supervisors when I'm asking them to take a student to say, "Think about whether you can do for somebody else and somebody did for you." So I decided maybe this was my chance to pay it forward. And for that reason, I am a candidate for President Elect of ASHA. And I would welcome your support.
Question 2: What would be your top priority be if elected to your respective position?
I think the thing that I would most like to get done is really something that I realized probably we all need, which is more connection. More connection between members and the association, more connection between members and members, more connection with state associations. More connection with our consumers and our students. I think we're already doing a lot of that, but I -- as I look around, I see we've got lots of technology out there that gives us lots of opportunities to build those connections that help us be able to function as a whole. And to really give us more power and more ability to meet our mission. So I think -- I don't know whether I can make a difference in it, but I certainly would say a priority is to see if we can find ways to build stronger and more viable connections across all of those constituencies.
Vice President for Academic Affairs in Audiology
Jane Baran
Question 1: Why are you running for a position on the ASHA Board?
There are a number of challenges in critical issues that are facing our profession, and I am interested and motivated to work with the association and its members to try to address these challenges and issues. From my perspective I see some major challenges and issues, including the continued shortage of PhD students that are graduating from our academic programs, the recent healthcare reform initiatives, which have potential impact on our clients' ability to access our services, the need for our profession to engage in data-driven outcome investigations that document the efficacy of our intervention and diagnostic protocols and procedures, and finally to advocate much more aggressively for increased federal funds to support our research and personnel preparation initiatives. If I am elected for a position on the ASHA board of directors, I will look forward to working with you and the ASHA leadership to achieve these goals -- its goals, its priorities, and its mission, and also to move towards a full realization of its vision, making effective communication a human right, accessible and affordable for all.
Question 2: What would be your top priority be if elected to your respective position?
If I were elected to this position, my top priority would be to increase the association's focus on the scholarship of teaching and learning. As a discipline, I believe we have made some important contributions in this area, but there remains much to be learned from further inquiry into student learning and the factors and variables that affect student learning. I also think that it is critically important that we share this information that we learn from our studies with the public, so that we can use the information gained to inform the practice of teaching in our profession. As new technologies and teaching methodologies emerge, it will be important for the association to communicate with the academic community to ensure that our students receive the best educational experience as possible. It is critical that they gain the knowledge and skill that they're going to need in their future careers as clinicians, as teachers, as researchers, and/or as administrators. The students are our future, and it is important that we attend to this very important aspect of our profession.
Frederick Britten
Question 1: Why are you running for a position on the ASHA Board?
A few of the experiences I've had within the association provide me with a knowledge base that I can serve the association at this level very well. I've served on the Formal Legislative Council. I've been on the Honors Committee, which I've chaired. I've been on the Committee of Nominations Elections. I've been on the Council of Academic Accreditation serving as a site visitor. And I think in those capacities, and even my current service on the Board of Ethics and Chair of the Education Subcommittee give me a good understanding of a variety of programs that ASHA has within the association. And I feel like this is the next logical step for me to move to a leadership position and help to further the strategic pathway of the association.
Question 2: What would be your top priority be if elected to your respective position?
Since I've spent my entire professional career in higher education, I feel like I have a good grasp of the issues that are facing programs in higher education, whether it be budget, continuation of programs, enrollments, et cetera. Also, my experience as a member of the Council of Academic Accreditation and my service as site visitor, I feel like I have a good understanding of programs, audiology programs around the country and some of the issues they're facing. One of my priorities is related to a concern that I have. We have, you know, 72 programs awarding the AuD Degree. We have a few programs awarding an AuD/PhD option for students, but we really have a dwindling number of PhD audiologists coming out to go into higher education in the future. The AuDs that are coming out are going into clinical practice, and that's what they're being trained for. But we need to work with programs to get more AuD/PhD combined in so that we have audiologists within higher education to train and educate the audiologists of the future.
Barbara Katherine Cone
Question 1: Why are you running for a position on the ASHA Board?
I think that ASHA is an organization that needs leaders to step up and do some hard work and some hard thinking. I have a lot of experience in the field, 35 -- more than 35 years. And I've done clinical work and I've done research and I've done teaching. I think I can bring all that together to help move the professions forward, not only in audiology, but also speech and language pathology. I have a lot of enthusiasm for the profession, still. There's a lot more work to do, and I'd like to use my enthusiasm, my persistence, my optimism, and my outspokenness to try to influence the direction of the field for the next few years.
Question 2: What would be your top priority be if elected to your respective position?
I'd like to partner with my counterpart on the board in speech language pathology, and emphasize undergraduate training in science, technology, engineering, and math. I think this is the way forward for undergraduate training in communication sciences and disorders. If we don't put an emphasis on this, we're going to be very dependent on other fields that do. So I think that ASHA resources can be harnessed to improve and encourage better training in the basic sciences, and mathematics and engineering. This will really improve our intellectual growth, and it will set the stage for research and clinical innovation for the years forward. Another priority would be to increase research training capacity at universities. We know that there's a serious shortage of PhD students in both audiology and speech language pathology. ASHA has excellent resources for supporting increased research capacity, and I would like to work on that as well.
Vice President for Planning
Edie Hapner
Question 1: Why are you running for a position on the ASHA Board?
You know, I've learned through the -- through my career that two very important and worthy goals are both leadership and mentorship. I've benefitted from the mentorship of some amazing people over the past 31 years. And they taught me that ASHA's core values of integrity, excellence, responsiveness, and commitment needed to be my core values. They also taught me that being involved at the state, the local, and the national level is a way of ensuring the longevity of our profession, of affecting a positive change. So I'd like to be part of the Board of Directors because I'd like to have that kind of impact. I'd like to be able to help mold some strategic pathways and to impact policy. And maybe even infuse a little bit of innovation in our future.
Question 2: What would be your top priority be if elected to your respective position?
Building our professional careers used to be about preparation, about scholarship, about skill, and about a little bit of charisma. But now we have to add the word stamina to this. We have to have this stamina to keep the utmost attention to our changing landscape to use an ASHA word. For our medical colleagues it's surviving healthcare, for our school-based colleagues it's dealing with the oversight from government policy makers on their overutilization of services, and for all of us it's a little bit about what's happening with our sister associations who are looking at trying to limit our scope of practice. So my top three priorities would be to enhance the resources of the healthcare economics committee, and the GRPP, to disseminate what they have, and to allow them to get more member participation -- the core of their -- of what they need to function for us. The second would be to develop enhanced relationships with our sister associations. Perhaps if they understood the rigor of our preparation, and the integrity of our work, they wouldn't be so concerned about our scope of practice. And lastly, to continue developing strong students. Strong students make strong professionals, people can translate science into clinical care.
Melissa Jakubowitz
Question 1: Why are you running for a position on the ASHA Board?
I have spent many years volunteering in my professional associations. And I really enjoy the work. But I also see many changes that are coming for our professions. And I think it's important that we look forward to those changes and plan for them and make sure that we're meeting our members' needs. I also think it's an opportunity to mentor some of the younger folks that are coming up in our profession. And as a leader in ASHA, it would afford me the ability to do that.
Question 2: What would be your top priority be if elected to your respective position?
I believe that my top priority would be in looking towards the implementation of the strategic pathways to excellence in order that we identify the trends that are going to most affect our members. I also believe that engaging our membership more in helping the association to identifying those trends so that they embrace those changes and know that their voices are being heard will be very important for me as ASHA's Vice President of Planning.
Vice President for Standards and Ethics in Speech-Language Pathology
Kim Corbin-Lewis
Question 1: Why are you running for a position on the ASHA Board?
I'm running for Vice President for Standards and Ethics in Speech-Language Pathology because I believe strongly in shared governance. I'd like to be part of the team that moves the association forward. In 33 years as a speech-language pathologist, I've relied heavily on the work of volunteers and ASHA staff members that have gone before me. Beginning a brand new program in the Province of New Brunswick for the school system in two districts, I found that I relied heavily on the scope of practice, on guidelines, and on the code of ethics. Every position I've had has utilized these kinds of standards and documents that have been put together. I'm passionate about delivering service that is ethical and that is evidence based. And it's through the work of these committees that we can do that. Whether it was developing a dysphagia program for Regional Hospital in Canada or today looking at the research that goes on at our university, I find that it's really important that we have standards, that we understand them, and that we respond to the ever-changing educational and healthcare settings with standards for all of the practitioners in the organization.
Question 2: What would be your top priority be if elected to your respective position?
My first priority as Vice President for Standards and Ethics in Speech-Language Pathology would be to listen actively to the committee members who are knowledgeable and have carefully looked at a number of the challenges facing the association. I think none of the top priorities in the next few years will be responding proactively to legislative changes and the governmental oversight that will likely occur. We're already seeing some of these changes. And the association has already begun the process of responding. It would be an honor to serve on the board and to assist with this process.
Elise Davis-McFarland
Question 1: Why are you running for a position on the ASHA Board?
I've had a very fulfilling professional career, and some of my best experiences -- most rewarding experiences have been in terms of teaching and research and clinical practice, and communication disorders. But all of my professional experience has not been in that area. I've been able to do other things, and that means that I've been able to be a member of, and hold leadership positions in other professional associations. I've also worked and traveled overseas, so I have some familiarity with some of the international associations also. And that's how I know that ASHA is one of the premier associations -- professional associations in the world. The reason that I'm interested in being on the board is because I really want to be able to make a contribution to strengthening and continuing what ASHA represents for our professions. I think that I can have a role to play in terms of strengthening and continuing the services that we offer our members.
Question 2: What would be your top priority be if elected to your respective position?
I think that if you aspire to a position that is as important as being on the board of ASHA, I think your vision has to be a little bit broader than a priority. If I'm fortunate enough to be elected to the board, there are a couple of -- several things that I'd be interested in working on in terms of heightening ASHA's national and global reputation. One would be to ensure that our professional standards are heightened and maintained. Another would be to expand the opportunities that our ASHA members have for involvement in ASHA programs and initiatives. I'd also be very interested in communicating, or helping to communicate ASHA's legislative and public policy positions. And finally, in terms of ensuring that the services that we provide for our members are the very best that they can be.
Lissa Power-deFur
Question 1: Why are you running for a position on the ASHA Board?
Well, I feel myself very fortunate to have chosen a profession that I enjoy as much as I do. I'm real passionate about it. And early in my career, I felt it was important to share that passion with volunteer work and professional associations. I began with a long series of time with my State Association SHAV. Moved on to work with ASHA Legislative Council, and a variety of other ASHA committees like the Board of Ethics, Financial Planning Board, and so forth. But I had the opportunity to serve on the ASHA original Governance Restructuring Committee, which was designed to try to improve the governance of ASHA to a more streamlined efficient process. This Board of Directors we have now is really critical for implementing the purposes of the association. For such things as maintaining our standards and ethics, for promoting the association in its advocacy efforts, for professional development, for scientific inquiry, and for policy direction. So I feel it's time for me to give back by sharing some of the knowledge and skills I've gained from my work as a clinician, my work as an administrator with the Virginia Department of Education, my work in higher education, starting a graduate program. So that I can share that knowledge and skills with the association through a position on the Board of Directors.
Question 2: What would be your top priority be if elected to your respective position?
Well, if I had the honor of being elected by the membership to the Vice President of Standards and Ethics in Speech-Language Pathology, I think I would have two priorities. The first would be further engagement of the membership in the areas of our academic and certification standards and in our ethical standards. And the second would be to use those standards in our public policy and our advocacy efforts. Firstly, ASHA does a great job engaging the membership in its standards. For example, the recent revision of certification standards in speech-language pathology had an extensive peer review process. And the CFCC responded to that by making changes in response to what the members said. But despite that huge response, it's still a small portion of the membership. And so I'd like to collaborate with the National Office staff, with other members of the Board to figure how can we penetrate the membership to a greater degree to get them more involved in our standards? To pay more attention to the wonderful ethics education materials that are prepared by the Board of Ethics? Then secondly, I think our association has an outstanding foundation of academic, certification, and ethical standards. And we need to be constantly reviewing our public policy initiatives, our advocacy efforts to ensure that those are highlighted with policymakers, with third-party insurers, and with our consumers.