2006 State Clinical Achievement Awards

Alabama

Harvey S. Harmon
Alabama Reading Initiative Reading Coach
Baldwin County Board of Education

For providing effective in-service and materials-development sessions on the five research-based components of effective reading instruction to selected grade level teachers within the educational setting.

Arkansas

Tracy B. Pate
Speech Language Pathologist
Arkansas Children's Hospital

For establishing a therapy intervention program for families of children identified with hearing impairment, increasing effective early intervention for children with hearing loss in the state.

District of Columbia

Darlene S. Williamson
Executive Director
The Stroke Comeback Center

For creating The Stroke Comeback Center, a unique community-based program that offers affordable individual, group, and a computer-based speech and language services.

Kansas

Sara H. Sack
Director, Assistive Technology for Kansans Project
University of Kansas

For promoting and providing augmentative communication and other assistive technology devices to individuals of all ages, all disabilities, and all health conditions, effecting changes in policies, practices, and funding.

Kentucky

Kathy Panther
In-Patient Rehab Director
Frazier Rehab Institute-Jewish Hospital and St. Mary's Healthcare

For improving the quality of life of dysphagic individuals via the Frazier Water Protocol, an approach that allows dysphasic individuals who are known aspirators to have free water between meals.

Michigan

Richard Merson
Coordinator, Clinical Research and Special Projects
William Beaumont Hospital, Speech Pathology Department

For establishing The Beaumont Stuttering Center to provide a continuum of services and resources for persons who stutter in Southeast Michigan.

Mississippi

Beverly N. Ray
President and Clinical Director
Speech Pathology Associates, Inc.

For developing and implementing the Speech Pathology Associates Clinical Partnering Model which has served to address the workload and speech-language pathology shortage issues in area schools and improve services to children.

Missouri

Deborah Hwa-Froelich
Associate Professor
Saint Louis University

For creating and coordinating the Saint Louis University International Adoption Clinic, an interdisciplinary setting designed to address the needs of children and their families in the areas of adoption adjustment, child communication, symbolic play, and social-emotional development.

Nebraska

Laura Ball
Assistant Professor
Munroe-Meyer Institute of Genetics and Rehabilitation

For her expertise in providing augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) services to clients and her leadership in administering the ACC component for a three state regional Muscular Dystrophy Clinic.

New York

Sima Gerber
Associate Professor
Queens College

For involvement in the interdisciplinary "Diagnostic Manual for Early Infancy and Early Childhood" and for the development of a DVD which integrates the assessment and management of children with language challenges to other disciplines.

South Carolina

Caryn F. Melvin
Speech Language Pathologist
WJB Dorn Veteran's Hospital

For efforts to improve the quality of services for the nation's veterans and their families, specifically, for those who have been diagnosed with cancer and who have received a laryngectomy.

Utah

Beth F. Foley
Associate Professor and Department Head
Utah State University, Department of Communicative Disorders and Deaf Ed

For her efforts on behalf of individuals with complex communication needs living in rural/ remote areas, including the founding and directing of an Augmentative and Alternative Communication Clinic at Utah State University, obtaining grant support for an Assistive Technology Lending Library/Demonstration Center, and expanding interdisciplinary AAC/AT training opportunities in Utah.

Vermont

Robyn Ogg
Speech Language Pathologist/Special Educator
Rutland City Public Schools

For researching needs, educating constituents, locating funding and ultimately accomplishing the goal of outfitting every classroom in her primary level school district with a wall-mounted FM sound field system.

Washington

Gay Lloyd Pinder
Speech Language Pathologist
Program Director, Children's Therapy Center, Kent, Washington

For her state-wide leadership in the area of pediatric feeding/swallowing and for her instrumental role in drafting a "rapid weaning" protocol for the Puget Sound area that has assisted hundreds of families.

Wisconsin

Peggy Rosin
Clinical Full Professor
University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Communicative Disorders

For creating two innovative literacy-based programs, one for children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and the other for children with Down syndrome, programs that not only benefit the children who attend, but also serve as clinical education for graduate and undergraduate students.