This is my final message to the members of the Illinois Speech-Language-Hearing Association in my term as President. I am writing filled with gratitude for the opportunity to serve and grow over the past year. I have had wonderful experiences learning about our profession, meeting amazing volunteer leaders, and advocating for our profession. I believe even more now that professional organizations, like ISHA, are vital for the health of our professions and for the well-being of those we serve.  

This year I have had the pleasure of learning more about legislative initiatives that support services for stuttering. The members of the legislative and regulations committee have been working with advocacy in stuttering to ensure greater access to speech-language pathology services. These efforts are continuing to build. 

More recently, we have been exploring how we can help support newborns and their families through early hearing detection initiatives. We are learning more from our partners in early hearing detection about vulnerabilities in funding to support families following early hearing loss detection. These conversations involve both audiologists and speech-language pathologists. I believe ISHA has an integral role.  

Our Speech-Language Pathology Assistant Task Force is now the Assistants and Supervisors Committee.  This committee has been hard at work to frame rules on necessary aspects of licensure in Illinois. The task force is a dynamic group of stakeholders from across the state.  We have also established a membership group within ISHA for assistants to encourage growth of voices within the organization.  

We continue to support efforts to ensure reimbursement to speech-language pathologists and audiologists grow in ways that are consistent with the highly skilled prevention, assessment, and intervention we provide.  Whether it is supporting legislation, sharing communication from our liaisons with the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), or sending communications to support equitable reimbursement to state agencies, ISHA stands in support of our members.  

I am grateful to all the volunteer leaders who have led these efforts and so many others. There is so much work happening within the organization. This work really demands time, energy, and critical thinking of the volunteer members involved. How do we ensure the work continues? We ensure the work continues when volunteers say YES!  

As I step back from president, I am forever thankful that I said yes. It may not have been a confident yes, but it was a sufficient yes. The lesson I have learned is that you don’t have to be confident to step into a role. We only need a sufficient yes to start and then let ISHA help us gain confidence. ISHA will not let you fall. There will be people there to support you. My sincere gratitude to everyone who has helped support me this year.  

I am a faculty member at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. I spend my days teaching, mentoring students, and researching in areas of early language and interdisciplinary collaboration. That is a small part of our discipline. So, there is a lot I don’t know, but that was also ok. There are so many people within ISHA to help provide that guidance on aspects of the profession. Plus, we have the amazing team at Bostrom led by Paul Doggett to ensure that we are doing the work that needs done.  

Finally, I want to thank my colleagues at SIU for their unwavering support this year. Maria Claudia Franca is my forever collaborator and my constant source of support. Denise Croft stepped into the program director role for me this year at SIU and has been my biggest cheerleader. Juhi Kidwai, Jayma Stroud, Stephanie Nanto, Allison Tanner, and Jason Mings always have our students’ best interests at heart and have lifted our program in so many ways. This team has made this year possible for me. Thank you so much to my fellow Salukis.  

Valerie Boyer
ISHA President