2002 Honors of the Association

ASHA's highest achievement, the Honors of the Association, have been granted to five outstanding individuals for 2002. The awards were conferred in November at ASHA's Annual Convention in Atlanta.

Gene J. Brutten,
University of Central Florida

Gene J. Brutten, who is professor emeritus at both the University of Central Florida and Southern Illinois University, has devoted his 50-year professional career to applied research in the area of fluency disorders. The pinnacle of his achievements—although it might be argued that there is more than one to be found among his 20 book chapters, 70 articles, and 228 presentations—is what Edward Conture of Vanderbilt University calls Brutten's "ground-breaking two-factor theory of stuttering that created a sea-change in the zeitgeist surrounding stuttering in the late '60s."

The theory, first articulated in 1967 in The Modification of Stuttering (co-authored with D. J. Shoemaker), was, explains Conture, "an extremely creative amalgam of learning theory and empirical knowledge" of the disorder that "tied together, in one package, many disparate but important loose ends: emotions, learning, autonomic arousal, environmental reactions, and fluency types." The theory differs importantly from earlier attempts at description in that it is a behavioral approach that deals with both the learned negative emotional reactions that disrupt fluency and the coping responses of avoidance and escape. Brutten's theory continues to be highly regarded and consistently cited in the literature of stuttering.

The contributions of Brutten (BA, Kent State University; MA, Brooklyn College; PhD, University of Illinois) to speech-language pathology go far beyond his famous theory and even his later development of the Behavior Assessment Battery for children and adults who stutter (which has been translated into many languages for use by clinicians around the world), to his work in many other areas of the profession, including creating a whole new generation of international teacher-scholars. The considerable work of Adams, Bakker, Baumgartner, Boutsen, De Nil, Hegde, Janssen, Kraaimaat, Maxwell, Oelschlager, Starkweather, and Vanryckeghem, for some impressive examples, owes a great debt to their mentor Brutten.

Brutten, who was on the faculty at Southern Illinois University for almost 40 years before moving to Central Florida, twice received a Fulbright-Hays Award to the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands where his teaching and research ushered in an era of important Dutch contributions to the literature. He also has been a visiting professor at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa, the University of Zagreb in Croatia, and the University of Ghent in Belgium. Brutten's worldwide significance is also evident in the founding of the International Fluency Association (IFA) and in his work as editor in chief of the IFA's Journal of Fluency Disorders from 1989–2000. He is an ASHA Fellow and the recipient of the Association's Certificate of Appreciation and Certificate of Recognition.

Brutten's career has been one marked by quality— in his teaching and research, in his dedication to the future of his profession, in his publications, and in his service. He is, says Oliver Bloodstein of Brooklyn College, "one of the four or five outstanding living authorities on stuttering" and, adds Conture, he is "a mentor's mentor whose love for human change and development is the hallmark of the special teacher-scholar."

Anita S. Halper,
Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago

Anita Halper has been at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago for 42 years and was one of the first people in the country to direct speech-language pathology services in an academic rehabilitation medicine facility. In this role, she's trained hundreds of physicians and medical residents in communication and swallowing disorders and has been a mentor to countless speech-language pathologists. "She's one of a kind," says Barbara S. W. Solomon, director of Purdue University's Speech and Language Clinic, an individual "always on the cutting edge of creativity, constantly thinking about how she can help clinicians provide the best services they can. She is truly a credit to our profession."

Halper (BS and MA, Northwestern University), an ASHA Fellow, is recognized as a pioneer in the delivery of speech-language pathology services to people with cognitive communication disorders resulting from unilateral right-hemisphere damage and traumatic brain injury. She has been instrumental in the development of assessment tools for the identification of communication disorders in individuals with right-hemisphere lesions—her RIC Evaluation of Communication Problems in Right Hemisphere Dysfunction-Revised (RICE-R) is the measure most widely used by clinicians who work with this population. She has also authored almost 100 publications on subjects including cognitive communication disorders, aphasia, and dysphagia.

Halper's service to her profession is well known. She was actively involved in the founding of the Academy of Aphasia (of which she became a charter member), the Academy of Neurologic Communication Disorders and Sciences, and the Society of Hospital Directors of Communicative Disorders Programs, as well as serving in key leadership positions in these organizations. She has given her time and talents as well to both the Chicago and the Illinois Speech-Language-Hearing Associations, the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine, and the Association of Clinical Programs in Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology in Metropolitan Chicago.

In addition, she has made significant contributions to ASHA. She was chair of the Association's Clinical Certification Board and Ad Hoc Committee on Governance Evaluation, and member of the Council on Professional Standards in Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, Professional Services Board, and Legislative Council. Halper also has been actively involved in Special Interest Divisions 2, 11, and 13: Neurophysiology and Neurogenic Speech and Language Disorders, Administration and Supervision, and Dysphagia, respectively.

"If you look across Anita's career achievements, you will find a blueprint for that unique ethic known as service to others," says Lee Ann Golper of Vanderbilt

Lyle L. Lloyd,
Purdue University

Lyle L. Lloyd, professor of special education and professor of audiology and speech sciences at Purdue speech-language pathologist, has dedicated his impressive career to the populations. His creative contributions to the sustain the creativity are admired and envied by does it all with impressive skill.

Lloyd began majoring in physical education with work in the public schools. He took this advice, and validity of audiometric testing for people with mental into novel areas of the profession. In collaboration with Joe Spradlin, Lloyd developed an improved behavioral procedure for the audiometric testing of earlier considered untestable, were now considered the late '60s, cemented his reputation in this new area of audiologic practice.

While at Parsons, Lloyd (MA, University of Illinois; PhD, University of Iowa) also began exploring little or no functional speech, an area that was later to tion" (AAC). He went on at the National Institutes of Health to publish two texts with several chapters on the subject-Language Perspectives: Acquisition, (with Schiefelbush, 1974) and including the text (with Fulton, 1975) and (with Kaplan, 1978). He University in 1977, when he and Macalyne Fristoe University, and dually certified audiologist and delivery of communication services to underserved professions and the energy level at which he can colleagues internationally. Lloyd does everything and As an undergraduate at Eastern Illinois University, minors in sociology and zoology. While searching for another minor, he met professor Wayne L. Thurman who convinced him to study "speech correction" and Thurman became one of his most influential mentors. Lloyd's doctoral dissertation-on the reliability and retardation-was groundbreaking and began his entry persons with severe intellectual impairments who were "difficult-to-test." His research at Parsons College and subsequent work at Gallaudet University, where he was chair of the department of audiology and speech in alternative methods of communication for people with be termed "augmentative and alternative communica- Retardation, and Intervention Communication Assessment and Intervention Strategies (1976). Lloyd also continued publishing in audiology, Audiology Assessment of the Difficult-to- Test Audiometric Interpretation: A Manual of Basic Audiometry brought his expertise in this new field to Purdue taught one of the first AAC courses ever to be offered.

Lloyd, an ASHA Fellow, held numerous elected and appointed positions in several organizations. He was a founding member of the International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication, the United States Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication, and ASHA's Special Interest Division 12, AAC. He is also a Fellow of the American Association on Mental Retardation and has had leadership roles in the Council for Exceptional Children and the Society of Sigma XI, among other groups.

Lloyd continues to publish extensively and make professional appearances at local, state, national, and international conferences. He has become known as a "firster," says Eugene B. Cooper, professor emeritus of the University of Alabama and distinguished professor at Nova Southeastern University, because of his professional innovativeness. "Throughout his career, Dr. Lloyd has maintained a level of professional activity that is simply awesome," Cooper adds. "If anyone is ever to be deemed 'the father of augmentative and alternative communication,' it would have to be Dr. Lloyd."

James E. McLean,
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, University of Wisconsin-Madison

James E. McLean, professor emeritus of the University of Kansas, and adjunct professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, was a visionary in the development of new methods for delivering communication training to children and youths with severe disabilities. Through research, published training programs, and extensive teaching efforts, he and his colleagues sought to change the model for communication services to this population. His model, "integrating early cognitive, social, and communicative development, paved the way for meaningful interdisciplinary programming," says Joe McLaughlin of McLaughlin and Associates in Storrs, CT. "He taught us that these skills were not independent entities to be treated in different therapy rooms; rather these were essential skills that were at the core of successful human interaction."

After completing his PhD at the University of Kansas (BS, Indiana University-Bloomington; MA, University of Kansas), McLean and his colleagues at Kansas began a program of research focused on the development of better assessment and treatment models for treating the communicative disorders of children and youth with mental retardation. His early research on the development of systematic procedures for articulation modification among children with mental retardation demonstrated that these children could benefit from such treatment.

In 1976, he began a collaboration with Lee Snyder-McLean that was more broadly focused on language and nonverbal communication behaviors of children with severe cognitive deficits. Their work on a grant from the Bureau of Education for the Handicapped of the U.S. Office of Education resulted in a highly influential book—A Transactional Approach to Early Language Training: Derivation of a Model System (1978). This book was followed in 1983 by an eight-module videotape and print training program for speech-language clinicians who worked with children with severe cognitive deficits. These materials, and several other instructional programs that followed them, applied the philosophical and empirical perspectives being provided by developmental psychologists and psycholinguists studying typically developing children. Over the past 25 years, work by the McLeans and many other ASHA researchers applying data on social, cognitive, and communicative development in typical children has resulted in the development of more appropriate assessment and intervention procedures for children with severe disabilities.

McLean's most recent research, conducted with his colleagues at Kansas, has focused on improving our understanding of the forms and functions of communication in children with severe disabilities and, critically, those factors that are associated with the development of more effective, symbolic communication skills. He has served as principal investigator on 14 federal grants. He and Snyder-McLean have presented over 90 professional workshops, symposia, and seminars. He has served on several ASHA committees, is a Fellow of ASHA, and has received the Honors of the Kansas Speech-Language-Hearing Association, as well as its Clinical Achievement Award.

In his retirement, McLean is still exerting a profound influence on his colleagues, "acting as a long-distance mentor via his published work and spirited conversations at national and international meetings," says Jon Miller of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "He is a remarkable man, modest in the extreme and generous with his time in helping new investigators."

Lawrence D. Shriberg
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Lawrence D. Shriberg, professor emeritus, department of communicative disorders, University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW), and continuing research professor at UW's Waisman Center on Mental Retardation and Human Development, "has accomplished it all," says Nicholas W. Bankson of James Madison University. The "all" includes "external funding to support his research, published articles, scholarly presentations, invited workshops, books, chapters, clinical materials, teaching in a major academic program in our field, and mentoring students. Few in our profession can match his record."

During his career at UW, which began in 1970, Shriberg developed innovative courses, created instructional laboratories for students, and refined new analysis systems to elucidate the speech production problems of young children. With long-time colleague Joan Kwiatkowski, he also created the Phonology Clinic in 1985, which was a cooperative effort with the Madison Metropolitan School District, UW's department of communicative disorders, and Shriberg's own Phonology Project research group. The clinic continues to serve children in the greater Madison area. During the 1980s, Shriberg (BS, Syracuse University; EdM, Boston University; PhD, University of Kansas, Lawrence, and University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City) produced a series of textbooks and computer programs that standardized assessment and intervention methods for children with phonological disorders. His work advanced not only the clinical methodology of the field, but also the theoretical understanding of the nature and causes of children's phonological impairments. His active research program at the Waisman Center continues to investigate what Dorothy Bishop of The University of Oxford, England, calls "an impressively wide range of topics, including developmental apraxia of speech, otitis media, and more recently, epidemiology and genetics of speech disorders."

Shriberg, an ASHA Fellow, is a prolific scholar. He has authored or co-authored numerous research papers, books, software programs, technical reports, and book chapters. He also has given close to 200 presentations at national and international research conferences. Shriberg's work has been consistently funded by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, clear evidence of how highly his work is judged. He also has won ASHA's Editors' Award for the article of highest merit four times since 1980 for his work in three different journals.

Generations of students have been inspired by Shriberg's classroom teaching, mentoring, and writing—the third edition of Clinical Phonetics (co-authored by Raymond Kent) is currently in use. His legacy clearly will continue through the work of his intellectual progeny: "Dr. Shriberg demonstrated to me incredibly high standards of scholarship, unquestioned attention to conducting research in the most ethical manner, and a high level of personal concern for my development both as a person and as an aspiring scholar," says Peter Flipson, Jr., now an assistant professor at the University of Tennessee.

Rhea Paul of Southern Connecticut State University, another former student of Shriberg's, concurs. She owes her interest in the "interaction between speech and language development in a variety of communication disorders" to his influence. She adds that his most valuable contribution to her own research is his development of the Prosody-Voice Screening Profile, the most successful attempt to address the problem of quantifying this "leastresearched domain of language functioning." Paul considers Shriberg "one of the most prolific researchers working in speech disorders today. He has made wide-ranging and deeply significant contributions to the science of communication disorders."

Gerald M. Siegel,
University of Minnesota

Gerald M. Siegel, professor emeritus from the University of Minnesota, is a respected "teacher, mentor, model, and valued colleague of many clinicians and researchers who are now leaders in the field," says Richard F. Curlee, professor emeritus of the University of Arizona. He adds that Siegel’s work has earned him a worldwide reputation. "I can think of no one who has contributed more to establishing our field as a scientific discipline and speech-language pathology as a respected profession."

Siegel (BA and MA, Brooklyn College; PhD, University of Iowa) has spent most of his long and distinguished career at the University of Minnesota (UM) where, in addition to his role as professor in the department of communication disorders, he also served as director of UM’s Center for Cognitive Sciences and director of the Office of Research Development in the College of Liberal Arts. During these years, he and Richard Martin conducted work on stuttering and dysfluency (the "Minnesota studies") that provided what Roger J. Ingham of the University of California, Santa Barbara, calls "a spectacular model of programmatic research and a superb illustration of how carefully designed research with relatively few subjects may literally change the direction of thinking about a disorder." These studies directly challenged current beliefs, especially in regard to the role of parents’ verbal behavior in causing and aggravating the disorder. "These exquisitely designed studies with adults (and later with children)," says Ingham, "were consistently validated through replication and ultimately showed that children could be successfully treated by procedures that were the exact opposite of those that had been advocated by diagnosogenic theory."

In addition to his work in fluency, Siegel, an ASHA Fellow, has published widely in the areas of language acquisition, therapeutic outcome, and the evaluation of treatment efficacy. He also has written more philosophically on the nature of science and the application of scientific methodologies in communication sciences and disorders. His articles and book chapters, which appear on virtually every university reading list, are distinguished by the attribute that also makes him a teacher of great talent: the ability to explain complicated material in a clear, precise manner that stimulates interest and intellectual excitement. His pedagogical gift was recognized by UM when he was awarded its Distinguished Teaching Award in the College of Liberal Arts.

Siegel has contributed greatly to ASHA and to the professions by serving as editor of ASHA Monographs, as a member of the Publications Board, and of the Convention Program Committee. He chaired the important ASHA Committee on Journal Distribution and Financing whose recommendations resulted in national and international recognition of the ASHA journals and the significant research they report. His work on behalf of the professions is highly regarded: "For the past 40 years, Dr. Gerald Siegel has been a significant personage in the development of our profession and discipline, "says Robert L. Ringel of Purdue University. "There are very few among our Association’s approximately 100,000 members who have contributed as much as Siegel in the areas of research, teaching, and service to undergraduate and graduate students, professional colleagues, and to those with communication disorders."

Charles E. Speaks,
University of Minnesota

Charles E. Speaks, director of the Institute of Linguistics, English as a Second Language, and Slavic Languages and Literatures, and Morse Alumni Distinguished Professor in the department of communication disorders of the University of Minnesota, has been, for the past 39 years, says Fred D. Minifie, professor emeritus of the University of Washington, "an academician extraordinaire."

Speaks' first teaching appointment after receiving his PhD from the University of Michigan (BA and MA, Ohio University) was at the Baylor University College of Medicine (1963–1968) where he began his illustrious research career with James Jerger. He then moved to the University of Minnesota, quickly rising up the ranks to become chair of the department of communication disorders. During his chairmanship (1977–1999), the department became one of the outstanding educational programs in the field. During this time, Speaks received three distinguished teaching awards, was principal investigator on six National Institutes of Health grants spanning a 30-year period, and was program director for five federal training grants to prepare master's students for careers in audiology and speech-language pathology and doctoral and post-doctoral trainees for careers in teaching and research.

During this time, Speaks was pursuing his own impressive research focusing on issues in the areas of assessment of speech perception, dichotic perception of speech, and speech perception by people with hearing impairment. He has published more than 70 scientific and professional papers, including three editions of his landmark book, Introduction to Sound: Acoustics for the Hearing and Speech Sciences, which has become the standard text for courses in acoustics in speech and hearing programs. Speaks' influence as a scholar is also evident in his editorial and review activities: He has served in various capacities on the Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research (JSLHR) for 30 years, as well as editing and serving as a reviewer for several other journals throughout his career.

Speaks, an ASHA Fellow and member of the and the professions in multiple ways. For a few Board and Council on Professional Standards, member of the Board of Examiners, and member of the executive board of the Council of Academic Programs in Communication Sciences and Disorders. Accreditation. He has been active as well on committees of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and and the National Academy of Science. who admits to “feeling humbled when I think of all Chuck has accomplished,” explains his longevity as intellect were respected by all, and because, under his prosperity and advancement.

Speaks does everything. And he keeps doing it. Dianne J. Van Tasell of the University of Minnesota, chair of the department of communication disorders: “We kept electing him.” She adds that “We kept electing him because he ran the department efficiently and with absolute fairness, because his integrity and leadership, the department enjoyed over 20 years of prosperity and advancement.

Ehud Yairi,
University of Illinois

director of what is probably the most extensive stuttering research program in the United States. The several major grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). His recent achievement in setting up the multi-center project, which is aimed at studying distinguished leadership in this area,” says Judith A. National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) of NIH. “In assembling a team of 11 scientists from several centers demonstrated not only inspiration and wise leadership, but also admirable vision of future research directions. This project is a first both in kind and scope in the area of stuttering.”

According to Richard Curlee, editor of the Journal of Fluency Disorders; Theodore Glattke, editor of the ; and Elaine hud Yairi is both the departthe department of Tel Aviv University, Faculty At Illinois, Yairi is the program is supported by subtypes of stuttering, “is a true mark of his Cooper, chief of the scientific programs branch of the to jointly pursue this very ambitious goal, Dr. Yairi has Journal of Fluency Disorders Journal of Communication Disorders, and Elaine Stathopoulos, editor for speech of the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, Yairi's work has influenced major research trends in stuttering toward a focus on its formative stages in young children. In addition, his own seminal longitudinal studies and other research work and findings have fundamentally altered strongly entrenched concepts about the etiology, onset, and pathognomonic development of stuttering. His data have had major implications for theories, the distinction between normal and pathological disfluency, differentiation and prognosis, treatment strategies, treatment efficacy research, and counseling. The significance of the findings of his epidemiological studies to the advancement of scientific understanding of the nature of childhood stuttering is of utmost importance.

In addition to his extensive achievements in research, Yairi (BA, Tel Aviv University; MA and PhD, University of Iowa), an ASHA Fellow, has received several excellence in teaching awards, the Outstanding Service Award from the American Cancer Society for his work on behalf of people with laryngectomies and glassectomies, the first Researcher Award of Distinction ever given by the International Fluency Association, and the Distinguished Alumni Award of the University of Iowa, among other distinctions. He has also generously donated his skills to various scien-tific/health bodies serving, for example, on ASHA's Scientific Affairs Committee; the American Cancer Society Rehabilitation Committee; the NIDCD's Committees on Programs, Research Training, and Career Development; the National Strategic Research Plan; other task forces; and many study sections.

Of all that he has accomplished, says Judith A. Gierut of Indiana University, "One of Yairi's greatest assets is his ability to see connections between research areas that may not be immediately obvious. It is this breadth of research that has included studies of the stuttering-phonology-language-motor-acoustics-central processes-cognitive-genetics (and others) connections." Gierut adds that "His approach and perspectives have been truly inventive."