ASHA Convention 2023

The steady hum of “speechies” with occasional bursts of happy reunions is the soundtrack of an ASHA Convention. Given that the meetings were held in Boston this year, with many local students, alum and colleagues present, I was in a constant state of joyful greetings across the wide hallways and exhibition area of the Boston Convention Center.

Second year MS SLP students Maddie McIntee, Laurel Alin and Mary Sullivan, were several of the many student volunteers at Convention this year.

“Igniting Innovation,” the theme of the 2023 Convention, resonated soundly with all of us who work in in the discipline. In this time of enormous growth in research with advances in technology, we can all appreciate the ongoing scientific based evidence in assessment and intervention in the field of speech-language pathology.

This was a banner year for our outstanding faculty, students and alum who presented their current research across the scope of our practice.

Dr. Kristen Allison, current student, Alanna Grimm, and MS SLP alumna, April Pierson, presented their poster, titled, Development of Audiotory-Perceptual Speech Features in Preschoolers with Typical Development.
Dr. Emily Zimmerman, her colleagues, and PhD candidate, Alaina Martens presented several seminars and posters on pediatric feeding and swallowing.

Current student, Jamie Klag, undergraduate alumna, Maggie Camelio, and Dr. Kristen Allison presented the Effect of Speech Modification Strategies on Vowel Acoustics for Adolescents with Cerebral Palsy.
MS SLP alumni, Sarah Jeudy, Rachel Alexander, Paige Wikman, Joanna Lubin, Adel Buff, Yobella Cook, and Narineh Torosyan, presented several posters with Dr. Therese O’Neil-Pirozzi. Current students, Sydney Bates, Cristel Ho, and Jingwen Li also presented posters with the amazing Dr. O! Topics included heatlh literacy, adult swallowing, cognitive exercises, and cognitive-communication aging.

MS SLP student, Angie Dinardo, and PhD candidate, Katherine Trice, presented their technical research with Dr. Zhenghan Qi.

A huge congratulations to Dr. Erin Meier (left) on receiving the prestigious ASHA Early Career Contribution in Research Award! And to Dr. Kristen Allison (right), for winning the Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools (LSHSS) Editor’s Award.

Our CSD alum get together was a huge success with many recent and some not so recent alum enjoying a drink and a bite to eat and catch up on where everyone is and what they are doing.

I am fortunate to live within walking distance from the Convention Center here in Boston, and was in the unique position to host a get together for our off campus clinical supervisors. A relaxing evening filled with lively discussion and great food and drink was enjoyed by over 50 of our preceptors. Thank you for all you do!

After three days, hundreds of presentations and thousands of steps, we wearily made our way home, to digest all the new information and great meet ups from Convention.

Here’s to next year in Seattle!