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ASHA's Board of Directors recently approved a plan to increase communication and collaboration between state speech-language-hearing associations (SSLHAs) and ASHA. The outreach model establishes four geographical regions, with a national office staff advocacy team member assigned as the liaison to all SSLHAs in that region.
The liaison for each of the four regions—Northeast, South, Midwest and West—serves as the primary point of contact on state issues, helps facilitate communication and interactions between the state association and ASHA, assists SSLHAs with association management issues, and works with the state association leaders and members to advocate for policy and legislation that advances the interests of the members and the individuals they serve.
Members of the state advocacy team are contacting SSLHA leaders in their regions to discuss issues of concern or importance in each state. Continued communication, including liaison visits to state offices, will help ASHA gauge the needs of the state associations, develop action plans, and provide resources and technical support.
ASHA state advocacy team members are eager to work more closely with state associations under this new collaborative model, and will be contacting state leaders to learn more about their specific issues. SSLHA officials are also encouraged to contact their ASHA liaisons. For more information, please contact Janet Deppe, ASHA's Director of State Advocacy, at jdeppe@asha.org or by phone at 800-498-2071, ext. 5668.
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