Executive Director Update

July 6, 2006

This is another in a series of occasional ASHA Executive Director updates. These updates are intended to provide ASHA members with a more in-depth view of various National Office units, their key member services and the names and roles of ASHA staff in those units. Information about staff changes and ASHA National Office recognitions/awards is also included.

Many thanks to those of you who have provided feedback regarding the previous updates, or suggestions for future ED updates.

This update focuses on the ASHA Public Relations Cluster.

ASHA Public Relations (PR) promotes the professions, issues, and developments of interest and importance to both external and internal audiences. It is part of the National Office Communications Cluster which includes the Web and Publications teams.

PR Department Organization

Director: Joseph Cerquone - Ext. 4104 - responsible for oversight of PR unit
PR Manager for Magazines and Journals: Nancy Gibson - Ext. 4351 - topical focus areas include government relations, SLP schools, evidence-based practice issues, and international topics and developments
PR Manager for Broadcast and News Media: Doug Plesh - Ext. 4349 - topical focus areas include, BHSM, Exhibits and audiology health beats
PR Manager for Print Media: Mona Thomas - Ext. 4156 - topical focus areas include consumer, trade, and health beats
PR Manager for Special projects: Greg Weimann - Ext. 4152 - topical focus areas include N.O. unit coverage, ASHF, Annual Convention, and other ASHA meetings
PR Specialist: Annette Gorey - Ext. 4601 - responsible for outreach to N.O. units including production of the Public Relations and Social Responsibility Coordinating Team newsletters
PR Administrative Coordinator: Claudette Quashie - Ext. 4250 - responsible for part-time assistance with exhibits, administrative work, and copy editing as needed.

Main PR Unit Activities

Media relations
Special projects - for example:
- "Share Your Stories" - ASHA members recounting interesting and memorable professional experiences as content for promotional pieces
- Speech, Language and Hearing Milestones: Birth to Age Five DVD
- NIH Annual Summer Film Fest in August, sponsored in part by ASHA
- Groundbreaking for ASHA's new National Office, April 2006
Exhibit program - ASHA PR team members attend 8-10 shows per year including the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), NBC4 Your Health - health and fitness expo, A.G. Bell Annual Conference, and the National Education Association (NEA)
Maintain the ASHA Web site's Press Room
Lend PR expertise to ASHA Focused Initiatives
Advise on verbal and written communications by other National Office units

Some Recent Media Results

A wide range of national and international media outlets have covered issues of importance to ASHA members. A small sampling of that coverage:

Stuttering article with comments from Kathleen Whitmire, ASHA Director of Schools, ran in The Washington Post on June 27, 2006.
Jet magazine's June 5th issue featured an interview with Lemmie McNeilly, Chief Staff Officer for Speech-Language Pathology, including suggestions on listening to individuals who stutter. Dr. McNeilly was also interviewed for a June 8th Bloomberg Press article about intervention plans for bilinguals who suffer a stroke or traumatic brain injury.
Story highlighting research on post-deployment hearing loss among U.S. Army soldiers appeared in The Cleveland Plain Dealer, The Seattle Times, and The Grand Rapids Press among other outlets.
The Washington Post interviewed Vic Gladstone, Chief Staff Officer for Audiology, for a recent story on high-frequency "Mosquito" cell phone ring tones only audible to those under 20.
The Health section of The Washington Post ran a short piece on classroom acoustics and sound amplification system use in schools on June 20th.
Hundreds of broadcast news stories in major media markets nationwide about ASHA's personal audio technology hearing loss campaign.

Other Projects

Public education campaign about the risk of hearing loss from the use of popular technology devices (such as the iPod and other MP3 players) since December 2005. At least 100 million viewers, listeners, and readers have seen, heard, or read ASHA related stories: "Listen to your Buds," the latest campaign iteration, provides safety tips to young listeners. In April more than 31,000 individuals viewed the Buds Web site and downloaded free products including bookmarks, screensavers and banners.
Redesign of ASHA on-line "Press Room" to facilitate media coverage

Future File

Among the projects ASHA is exploring or developing is a member area on the Web site that would be a resource for members to use for local public relations efforts.

National Office Staff Updates:

The following individuals are new to the ASHA staff since June 2006:

Nancy Gibson, Public Relations Manager for Magazines and Journals
Blanca Mikesell, Administrative Assistant National Student Speech-Language-Hearing Association
Anush Mazmanyan, Administrative Assistant, Government Relations and Public Policy
Sharon Willig, Associate Director, Clinical Issues in Speech-Language Pathology

The following staff position has changed within ASHA:

Ken Thompson, Manager, Office Operations and Distribution (formerly Director, Office Operations)

The following individuals have left ASHA to pursue other opportunities:

Jason Pasatiempo, Account/Payables Specialist
Betty Royalston-Scott, Retired from Information Systems as a User Support Specialist

Recent ASHA and ASHA National Office/Staff Awards:

Recycling Success - For the seventh consecutive year, ASHA received Montgomery County's "2005 Outstanding Leadership and Efforts in Recycling Award" for recycling over 72% of our waste.
NSSLHA Now! Receives SNAP Awards - NSSLHA Now! The Newsletter for the National Student Speech-Language-Hearing Association received the Society of National Association Publications (SNAP) bronze award for General Excellence and a Silver Award for Most Improved.