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ASHA's highest achievement, the Honors of the Association, have been granted to five outstanding individuals for 1999. The awards were conferred in November at ASHA's Annual Convention in San Francisco.
Fred H. Bess, professor and chair of the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences at Vanderbilt University, has been, throughout his 30 years in audiology, "a builder—of programs, of ideas, of science, of service, of people," says Robert T. Wertz of the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Nashville.
Bess developed the Central Michigan University Audiology Program and the Saginaw Valley (Michigan) Hearing Clinic and later became director of the Bill Wilkerson Center and chair of Hearing and Speech Sciences at Vanderbilt. In 1997, Bess successfully negotiated the merger of the Bill Wilkerson Center and the Vanderbilt Medical Center to form the Bill Wilkerson Center for Otolaryngology and Communication Sciences.
Bess’s research has been funded consistently for the past 30 years. His work, early in his career, on noise-induced hearing loss, led to identification and prevention efforts; his research into hearing health care for older people has resulted in improved services; and it was not until Bess and his group challenged the long-held belief that children with minimal hearing loss could progress with limited support or only preferential classroom seating that policy changes occurred that allowed this previously neglected population to gain access to services. Bess’s work has also resulted in 18 books and monographs and 120 chapters and journal articles as well as 250 presentations to national and international professional audiences.
Bess (BA, Carthage College; MA, Vanderbilt University; PhD, University of Michigan) has served ASHA long and well on the Subcommittee on Special Services, Regional Conferences, and Audiology Planning; the Clinical Fellowship Year Committee; on four Convention Program Committees; and on the Committee on Infant Hearing. He is currently serving on the ASHA Scientific and Professional Practices Board and, since 1975, has been an Educational Training Board Site Visitor. He is also the Audiology Program Chair for the 2001 ASHA Convention.
For his impressive body of work, Bess has received two Achievement Awards from Central Michigan University. He is an ASHA Fellow as well as a Fellow of the American Academy of Audiology, the Academy of Dispensing Audiologists, and the Society of Ear, Nose, and Throat Advances in Children. He is the recipient of the DiCarlo Award for Outstanding Clinical Achievement for the State of Tennessee, the Harris M. Jonas Award in Audiology from the New York League for the Hard of Hearing, and the Frank R. Kleffner Clinical Career Award from the ASHA Foundation.
As well as being the quintessential clinician/scholar, Bess is also a mentor par excellence. His "number one priority," according to his former student Judith S. Gravel (now professor of Otolaryngology and associate professor of Pediatrics at the Clinical Research Center for Communicative Disorders, Albert Einstein College of Medicine), is his students. Bess’s goal, she says, is "to make available to individuals with communication disorders the best clinicians and researchers that an academically comprehensive, clinically rigorous, and broad scientific foundation can provide." It is not surprising that his students have gone on to illustrious careers of their own.
Finally, Gravel says, in language that echoes Robert Wertz’s, Bess "is a builder, not a divider; he strives for the organizational good and not his own self-interest . . . Throughout the highly charged issues surrounding audiology today, he remains a gentleman, a mediator, and a scholar."
The distinguished career of Eugene B. Cooper, professor and chair emeritus, Department of Communicative Disorders, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, and distinguished professor, Program in Communication Disorders, Nova Southeastern University, in the area of speech-language pathology spans 40 years of involvement on state, national, and international levels. He has been—and remains—a dedicated scholar, teacher/mentor, and academic administrator.
Cooper (BA, State University of New York at Geneseo; MEd and EdD, Pennsylvania State University) has served as charter president of three national organizations: the Council of Academic Programs in Communication Sciences and Disorders, the National Council of State Boards of Examiners in Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology (of which he was also president a decade later), and the National Alliance on Stuttering. He is past president of the Division for Children With Communication Disorders of the Council for Exceptional Children and was chair of the Alabama Board of Governors for Speech Pathology and Audiology. As Nicholas W. Bankson, professor and head of the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at James Madison University, says of Cooper, "It is hard to imagine the current topography of our profession without these strong and influential organizations that are in many ways ‘his babies.’"
Cooper’s service for ASHA has been equally devoted: 14 years on the Legislative Council; 6 years on the Committee on Honors; currently, he’s serving a 4-year term on the Council on Academic Accreditation in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology. He was a member of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation’s Board of Trustees for 6 years and is in his 7 th year as Coordinator of Special Interest Division 4: Fluency and Fluency Disorders. Cooper was also a charter member of the Board of Directors of the International Fluency Association and served as its Membership Committee chair for 7 years. And, if space permitted, this list could go on a great deal further.
In his own discipline of fluency disorders, Cooper, an ASHA Fellow, has been equally productive and has earned an international reputation. His distinguished record includes research as well as applied work on treatment. He has published over 150 articles on stuttering, including his own Personalized Fluency Control Therapy program and has presented over 200 papers and workshops throughout the United States, Europe, and Canada. He led the establishment of the National Alliance for the Prevention and Treatment of Stuttering (and also served as its charter president) in order to foster cooperation among self-help, support, and professional organizations serving those who stutter. For his work in this area, the National Stuttering Project dedicated its 1996 annual convention to him.
But, given all Cooper’s accomplishments—his extraordinary commitment to service, extensive scholarship, enthusiastic support of students —— perhaps his "most significant legacy," according to Thomas A. Crowe, director of the Center for Speech and Hearing Research at the University of Mississippi, "might be his clients. Throughout his career, he has been first and foremost a clinician." Because of Cooper’s humanistic and eclectic approach to treatment, he has been able to help clients regardless of their level of fluency. His clients invariably leave his care with an enhanced quality of life and a desire to be productive.
According to John Bernthal, professor and chair of the Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Cooper has been unusual in that he "continued to see clients his entire professional career and has had a long record of excellence in clinical practice. His clinical insights and work have enhanced the entire area of fluency disorders."
Stephen C. McFarlane, University of Nevada, Reno, foundation professor, Leonette Foundation professor, and chair of the Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology at the University of Nevada School of Medicine, is a savior. In 1977 he began the process of saving a program that was about to close, and turning it, in 2 decades, into "a hugely successful, worldwide esteemed clinical research and teaching facility with outstanding faculty, students, and a new, well-equipped building that could never have been built without him."
So says William H. Perkins, who adds that this "marvel" of an accomplishment at Nevada was "only the beginning." McFarlane went on to become Foundation Professor, the university’s highest honor, chair of his department, associate dean of the Medical School, chair of Promotion and Tenure Committees of both the medical school and the university, vice dean of Medicine, and assistant vice president of University Academic Affairs.
McFarlane (BS and MST, Portland State University; PhD, University of Washington) has an international reputation as an expert in voice disorders. His development and testing of new treatments in this area along with his efficacy research are widely respected. McFarlane’s influence on the treatment of vocal fold paralysis and contact granuloma, for example, has been profound. Based on work of his research group that showed Teflon-injected vocal folds often do not vibrate, treatment of this disorder changed. Teflon injection is no longer automatically the treatment of choice; McFarlane demonstrated that voice treatment can be effective for vocal fold paralysis.
His clinical success is evident from the "sincere compassion" he extends to patients and their families, says Robert W. Blakeley, professor emeritus, Oregon Health Sciences University. McFarlane, he continues, "has raised more money related to patient care than any other faculty member in the history of the University of Nevada, Reno." Daniel R. Boone, professor emeritus of the University of Arizona, says of McFarlane that "his students and many patients over the years have experienced clinical practice ‘as it ought to be performed.’"
McFarlane’s clinical concerns and innovations are obvious as well in his many talks, workshops, and seminars throughout the United States, and in his publications. His text The Voice and Voice Therapy (coauthored with Boone), which has been translated into several languages and is in its sixth edition, is the best-selling voice disorders text in the world. McFarlane has also served as editorial consultant or associate editor for the Journal of Speech and Hearing Research , Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders , Journal of the Acoustical Society of America , American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology , Journal of the Indian Institute of Science (in Bangalore), Cleft Palate Journal , and Seminars in Speech and Language .
For his work, McFarlane, an ASHA Fellow, has received the Honors of the Nevada Speech and Hearing Association and the Psi Iota Xi Clinical Achievement Award. He also wrote Nevada’s state licensure law and was appointed by the Governor of Nevada as the founding president of the Nevada Board of Examiners for Audiology and Speech Pathology. He is also the recipient of the Sertoma "Service to Mankind" award. Mark Dawson, chancellor of the University of Nevada, had this to say when McFarlane accepted this honor: "I cannot think of anyone who more deserves the ‘Service to Mankind’ award than Steve McFarlane. He is one of the most dedicated and benevolent servants to mankind I have ever had the pleasure to know. His selfless devotion to his patients, his students, and his program is almost beyond comprehension in today’s world."
The name of Martha Taylor Sarno is synonymous internationally with research and clinical excellence in the disorder of aphasia. Or, as Audrey L. Holland, regents professor in the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences at the University of Arizona, Tucson, puts it, "Martha Taylor Sarno has done it all in terms of an unwavering commitment to improving the quality of life for individuals with aphasia and their families. She dauntlessly perseveres in this, trying every avenue for changing the life of aphasic patients. She is the instrument for imprinting the profundity of this disorder upon the national conscience."
Sarno is professor in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at New York University School of Medicine and director of the Speech-Language Pathology Department at the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine where she developed a unique program for people with aphasia. She was one of the first in her field appointed to a medical school faculty and was one of the founders of the Academy of Aphasia. Her research has contributed to the literature on the value of speech-language intervention for patients with aphasia, the necessity for prolonged treatment, the importance of addressing quality of life issues for both patient and family, and a host of clinical, psychosocial, and ethical concerns.
In the early 1950s, Sarno developed the Functional Communication Profile, which has served as the catalyst for the many contemporary efforts to develop functional communication measures. Derived from the observation that natural communication behavior is not always reflected in traditional language measures, the concept of functional communication as a basis of measurement and an objective of speech-language pathology practice is now universal in the profession.
Sarno’s work in aphasia is not limited to the clinic. She (BA, Michigan State University; MA, New York University; Doctor of Medicine, honoris causa, University of Göteborg [Sweden] School of Medicine) has published more in this area than anyone else, given hundreds of papers, and, more than 4 decades ago, pioneered the development of publications for families. Her monograph, Understanding Aphasia: A Guide for Family and Friends , in its 12th printing, has been translated into 12 languages. The third edition of Acquired Aphasia , a graduate text, was published last year. She is a Fellow of ASHA; a recipient of the Gold Key Award from the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine; the Outstanding Alumni Award from the College of Communication Arts and Sciences at Michigan State University; the Rusk Award from the Howard A. Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine; and the Frank R. Kleffner Clinical Career Award from the ASHA Foundation.
According to some, Sarno’s most important contribution to the profession was the founding of the National Aphasia Association 12 years ago. It is an advocacy organization consisting of a regional representative network, over 250 community support groups across the country, and a Response Center that distributes vital educational materials addressing the many needs of patients and their families. Audrey Holland is "sure that Martha Sarno would not like anyone to call the National Aphasia Association her association. But she has brought it to life as an instrument for aphasic patients and their families to improve the quality of their lives. Of the many many amazing things that this amazing woman has done, I suspect this is the one of which she is most proud."
Barbara C. Sonies is recognized everywhere as an authority in dysphagia research and clinical management. Her contributions to ultrasound imaging of the oropharynx have revolutionized diagnostic procedures and have resulted in early detection and prevention of the high-risk effects of dysphagia on morbidity and mortality. Her work has raised the area of dysphagia management to a recognized and respected position within medicine and related subspecialties including neurology, radiology, endocrinology, rheumatology, and biomedical engineering, for just a few examples.
Sonies, who is chief of the Speech-Language Pathology Section, Rehabilitation Medicine Department, W. G. Mangnuson Clinical Center at the National Institutes of Health, has brought her work to the attention of researchers in over 70 articles that have appeared in journals specializing in speech-language pathology and linguistics, biomedical engineering, and genetics. She is also the author of the text Dysphagia: A Continuum of Care , and of a new test, the Scales of Independence, Language, and Recall, the latter designed as a combined impairment and disability measure for use with older people. Her publications have as their focus real-time ultrasound imaging of the oropharynx. Sonies has also been invited to give papers, symposia, and workshops in dysphagia instrumentation and methods throughout the United States and internationally.
The work of Sonies (BS, University of Minnesota; MA, Stanford University; PhD, University of Maryland) on behalf of ASHA spans 2 decades. Most recently, she has been a guiding force in the creation of ASHA’s Special Interest Division 13: Dysphagia. She has also served as chair of the Committee on Alternative and Augmentative Communication; program chair of the Speech Disorders section of the Annual Convention and of the Dysphagia section; member of the Committee on Communication Problems of Elderly, the Ad Hoc Committee on Dysphagia, Board of Division Coordinators, and Nominations and Elections—for a few examples.
Sonies’ potential has been recognized since she was an undergraduate and graduate student when she was awarded the Hunt Scholarship and the Rehabilitation Services Administration Fellowship in Graduate Training, respectively. More recently, she has been given the NIH Performance Award, the Joseph H. Holmes Award for Excellence in Ultrasound Research, and the NIH Health Merit Award "for developing an innovative, safe technique for assessing oral function [with] broad applications for research and treatment." Sonies, an ASHA Fellow, has also received the ASHA Foundation’s Clinical Achievement Award.
More important, perhaps, than all of these contributions, says Carol M. Frattali, Sonies’ colleague at NIH, is Sonies’ "unfailing dedication to the next generation of clinicians and researchers." She has held appointments during her 35-year career at 10 universities (currently she is professor in the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences at the University of Maryland). She has also published in the Journal of the National Student Speech, Language, and Hearing Association and at NIH she has created new student/scientist apprenticeships and opportunities for high school work-study students, graduate practicum students, post-doctoral training fellows, and international students.
Sonies, says Frattali, "has built a bridge to the future of dysphagia management that will serve to sustain the field and pave the path for continued technological and scientific advances that are pointedly designed to save lives and enhance life’s quality once preserved."
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