alumni | Page 2 | College of Applied Health Sciences

Threats’ career goal had family inspiration

Oct. 24, 2022 | Vince Lara-Cinisomo

*Travis Threats was recently named one of the recipients of the Honors of Association from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA).*

Travis Threats had a clear inspiration for what he wanted to study: his brother.

Threats, who earned his master’s degree from the Department of Speech and Hearing Science in 1984, said he first observed speech therapy when he was eight years old.

“My younger brother, three years younger than me, is autistic,” Threats said. “Autism directly affects communication. Now, some people think, when they hear this, that it’s some beautiful inspirational story, and all of the speech therapists were great, and that’s why I wanted to be like them. Well, it’s the opposite. All the speech therapy in its early years was bad. The social work was bad. The teachers were bad. Even though (my brother) didn’t have any overt behavior issues, my parents would go to the doctor’s office, fill out the information, and the (pediatrician’s) nurse would come out to the waiting room, saying ‘He doesn’t see autistic children.’”

That interaction led Threats to the conclusion that “there was a need. All of my work has been with people in their actual lives because I realized there’s been a disconnect between therapists, and what goals they achieved, and what people with disabilities actual lives are like. For me, it’s a clear-cut (reason to study speech pathology).”

For his work and dedication to the profession, Threats—now professor and department chair of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences at Saint Louis University—recently earned Honors of Association from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). It is the national organization’s highest honor.

Threats got his undergraduate degree at Kansas State University before coming to the University of Illinois for his master’s. At Illinois, he met a man who would have a profound effect on his career.

“I did decide I wanted to work with adults with acquired disorders,” Threats said. “And the person who taught that wasn’t a researcher: Dr. Robert Simpson. He was a very humane man, and he did talk about aphasia and strokes and all that from that broader viewpoint of what they do to people’s lives.”

Simpson, who died in 2019 at 93, was a professor of speech and hearing science at the University of Illinois and also served as director of the department’s speech and hearing clinic. He served on the facial deformity team at Carle Foundation Hospital and eventually was employed by Carle as a speech pathologist after retiring from the university.

“He wasn’t a researcher in a traditional sense,” Threats said. “But his teachings were very much a positive influence on me.”

The ASHA award Threats received recognizes exceptional contributors whose work has enhanced or altered the course of research in the field of speech, language and hearing sciences. In an association of more than 218,000 professionals, only a select number of individuals each year receive this prestigious award.

He understands its significance.

“Three of my professors at U of I have honors from the association. I do remember—as a Ph.D. student (at) Northwestern—going to the first ASHA conference and going to the awards ceremony. And these were the people who wrote the books that I was studying from. These were some of my alums at Northwestern—three or so of those people eventually got honors, too. My own advisor got honors the year I graduated. … I certainly didn’t at the time think that I would be one of those people.”

Editor’s note:

To reach Vince Lara-Cinisomo, email vinlara@illinois.edu.

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Tags: alumni, Travis Threats

DRES alum’s posthumous gift takes spotlight: ‘I don’t think she ever forgot her debt’

April 24, 2024 | Ethan Simmons

Susan Chaplinsky’s $3.4M estate gift funds endowments supporting disabled Illinois students

The family of Susan J. Chaplinsky sits on her memorial bench in the center of the Disability Resources and Educational Services building. Her siblings Kathy, Amy, Molly and Pete sat with her plaque. (Photo by Ethan Simmons)

To honor their sister’s time at the University of Illinois, the siblings of Susan Jane Chaplinsky thought a memorial bench in the open-air plaza of Disability Resources and Educational Services would be a fitting tribute.

Because the work of DRES was a big part of what propelled Chaplinsky, living with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, to become an acclaimed business scholar and beloved instructor. She said so herself.

“[DRES at Illinois] … put me on a path to achieve the professional success I have attained over the course of my life,” Chaplinsky wrote in her will. “It remains a unique institution for students with disabilities to level the inequities caused by life and health and allows them to achieve a measure of success. I would be proud to have my name associated with an institution with these goals and aspirations.”

Upon her passing in November 2022, Chaplinsky dedicated a substantial portion of her wealth to the DRES: A $3.4 million estate gift which will support two endowment funds for Illinois students with disabilities.

The family got to witness the memorial for Chaplinsky at the DRES 75th Anniversary Open House on April 19, surrounded by staff, alumni and visitors. College of Applied Health Sciences Dean Cheryl Hanley-Maxwell gave thanks to the family and to Chaplinsky for her generosity.

”It’s going to change much of what we can do here at DRES, I can’t thank you guys enough for being willing to be here with us today to celebrate Susan’s commitment to us,” Hanley-Maxwell said. “Susan is an example of many students who have graduated from the University of Illinois who look back on DRES and say, ‘If it weren’t for DRES, I don’t know what I would have done.’”

‘A lifeline’

Chaplinsky graduated from Illinois in 1975 with her bachelor’s in economics. She went a couple hours north to obtain her MBA and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago.

What followed was a stellar academic and teaching career, where Chaplinsky taught finance at the University of Michigan, Northwestern University, and eventually the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, where she spent her final 28 years.

But with her early obstacles, she charted a course her family could’ve never foreseen.

In sixth grade, Chaplinsky was diagnosed with a severe form of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. In a matter of months, Chaplinsky went from being an active, able-bodied preteen to needing a wheelchair to get around day to day.

Growing up in Palatine, Illinois, a village 30 miles northwest of Chicago, Susan’s sister Kathy would bring her lunches during high school, since Susan couldn’t access the cafeteria with her wheelchair. As Chaplinsky confronted her new health challenges, others began to place unfair limits on her abilities.

“My sister was always very smart, brilliant, but there was no guidance counselor encouraging her to look at colleges,” Kathy Arter said.

“Then our parents learned about the program at Illinois, and it was just like a lifeline to them. There was a place that not only could accommodate her, but they wanted her there.”

Illinois, with its wheelchair accessible campus and the Division of Rehabilitation Education Services led by director Tim Nugent, was an opportunity too promising to pass up. After being accepted onto campus, Chaplinsky’s life and confidence transformed, her siblings said.

Every time they’d visit her at Allen Hall, she was surrounded by friends, going out to bars or movie showings on campus, living a regular student’s life.

But she took her studies seriously, and Nugent played a hand in that. Chaplinsky “talked a lot about Nugent,” Arter said; he was demanding, and held high expectations for the students he worked with.

“Some of that, with Susan, she left here with that: ‘They expect me to go on and be a success, I won’t disappoint them,’” Arter said. “I don’t think Susan ever forgot her debt to the university, for that opportunity.”

An outpouring of support flowed from the UVA campus after Chaplinsky’s passing. Her siblings didn’t always get to see the teaching side of Susan; a memorial event they attended allowed them to see a new side of their sister.

“The great passion of her life was teaching,” said her sister, Amy Meehan. “She was interested in students, she always rooted for the underdog. She just views this gift as an extension of that: ‘I can help for years to come.’”

Plenty of the traits they knew well—Chaplinsky’s sports fandom and dry humor, for example—also shined through in their remembrances.

“She’s funny, she’s brilliant,” sister Molly Gillis said. “I think about all the time, her footprint is ginormous when she had so many things that could’ve limited her reach and they didn’t.”

The siblings and extended family made a big showing at the DRES Open House. They gratefully packed in around their sister’s newly arrived memorial bench and posed for pictures in the cool spring weather.

“Maybe somebody sees that bench, and it gives them the confidence, the energy to go forward, to dream big, and to do something they didn’t think they could do,” brother Pete Chaplinsky said.

Editor’s note:

To reach Ethan Simmons, email ecsimmon@illinois.edu.

Tags: alumni, Donors, Susan Chaplinsky

Yogi, OT, teacher, researcher: Kinesiology Ph.D. candidate explores yoga for pain management

April 01, 2024 | Ethan Simmons

The question that guides her research: How might yoga be used to manage chronic pain?

*Stephanie Voss poses outside of Freer Hall.*

To doctoral candidate Stephanie Voss, chronic pain treatment and yoga have more in common than we think.

Voss, now in her third year of a kinesiology Ph.D program at the University of Illinois, first came across the connection while working as an occupational therapist at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, a rehabilitation research hospital in Chicago.

While she consulted patients who were dealing with persistent, chronic pain, Voss was training to become a yoga instructor—an out-of-class hobby that helped her overcome her own studying-induced back pain.

“I couldn’t get over how similar the treatment approaches are,” Voss said. “Yoga is very much a holistic practice, and we address chronic pain in very much a similar way—it involves working as part of an interdisciplinary team on strength and muscle conditioning and posture and body mechanics. We also work on the psychological components, the emotional components and how we can integrate pain management strategies into daily life.”

Today, Voss’s research at the College of Applied Health Sciences merges the two: How might yoga be used to manage lasting pain?

This fall, she was named a recipient of the Paul D. Doolen Graduate Scholarship for the Study of Aging, an annual award given to two University of Illinois graduate students whose scholarly work advances research on the human aging process.

With the help of the Doolen scholarship, Voss will develop a yoga protocol that specifically targets interoception, or the ability to perceive and interpret the sensations within one’s own body, an ability which may fade as we age.

The project will explore whether yoga can improve older adults’ abilities detect and interpret feelings of pain and discomfort within their bodies.

“I found [the scholarship] relevant to my research because most of my patients are older adults,” she said. “Chronic pain is immensely prevalent in older adult populations for various reasons but interestingly older adults tend to not be included in pain trials as often.”

It’s so immensely important that my research questions are rooted in the clinical needs of the patients.”

Stephanie Voss

Kinesiology Ph.D. candidate

What the $4,250 scholarship gives her for now is “breathing room,” Voss said. “Being a grad student isn’t always easy from a financial standpoint, so having a little bit of extra support to free up my time and mental space, it’s one less thing to worry about.”

Voss received her B.S. in Communication Sciences and Disorders from Northwestern University in 2014 and her M.S. in Occupational Therapy from Rush University in 2018.

She began at the University of Illinois in August 2021, working under former Illinois KCH Associate Professor Neha Gothe in Gothe’s Exercise Psychology Lab. Gothe was one of the only academics exploring the connection between yoga and pain management. Voss, then fully working as an occupational therapist, reached out to Gothe over email, expressing her desire to pursue a Ph.D. under her.

Since then, Voss has worked as a research assistant and teaching assistant, having instructed an introductory-level yoga class while periodically working with patients at the AbilityLab in Chicago. She recently taught the yoga intervention for one of Gothe’s research studies working with older adults.

“That got to really challenge my clinical and yoga teaching skills to integrate modifying postures for people who live in different bodies than mine,” Voss said. “It’s so immensely important that my research questions are rooted in the clinical needs of the patients. I want to make sure I’m still in touch with that population.”

When Gothe departed Illinois for Northeastern University in Boston, Voss decided to stay and finish the final stages of her Ph.D. program, with KCH Professor Steve Petruzzello stepping up as her on-site doctoral co-advisor.

“She’s very smart, and very personable,” said Petruzzello, who first met Voss while she made insightful comments in his class, KIN 443: Psychophysiology of Exercise & Sport. “It’s just refreshing for somebody to have such a good perspective on the science of what she does, but to also be very respectful and willing to take criticism for what it’s worth.”

Both her mentors described Voss as a methodical, talented researcher whose clinical experience has given her unique perspective and a deft ability to communicate scientific concepts to different audiences.

“She has an eye for translation and application of the research in clinical as well as real-life settings,” Gothe said. “Her years of yoga training and teaching also give her a unique advantage to work and communicate with her patients and research subjects.”

After her graduation, expected in spring 2025, Voss hopes to work in a hybrid clinical-academic position. In the meantime, Voss has seen great recruitment interest in her dissertation research, examining yoga as a strategy for chronic pain management.

“I do feel like I will be leaving with a degree that gives me a lot of opportunity and flexibility that I can teach in occupational therapy departments. I’ll be fully qualified for that, but I’ll also be fully qualified to teach in more traditional academic university-based settings that are not necessarily a clinical program,” Voss said.

Editor’s note:

Stephanie Voss completed her Ph.D. at Illinois in May 2025.

Tags: alumni, Kinesiology, Neha Gothe, Stephanie Voss, Steve Petruzzello, Yoga

Spurred to succeed: RST alum Larson knows importance of dedication to his craft

Feb. 02, 2025 | Adelyn Mui

*RST alum Josh Larson is general manager of the Austin Spurs, the G-League affiliate of the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs. (Photo provided)*

Many sports fans only see the athletes arriving at games, ready to take the court. However, the logistical and behind-the-scenes work often goes unnoticed. When a plane is delayed, causing the team to miss a connecting flight, or someone arrives 20 minutes late, it’s Josh Larson’s responsibility to ensure everything continues running smoothly.

That emphasis on service and hard work has propelled Larson to where he is today. He was immersed in basketball, almost from birth. His mother, Jenny, was an assistant athletic director at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and his brother played basketball collegiately. Today, Josh Larson serves as the general manager of the Austin Spurs, the G-League affiliate of the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs.

Raised in Tolono, Illinois, Larson attended the University of Illinois, where he earned a B.S. in Recreation, Sport and Tourism.

“What you learn in college isn’t necessarily all the Xs and Os of sports like how to coach basketball, how to work a salary cap, how to negotiate contracts and things like that,” Larson said. “To me, what was really beneficial, and I think it applies to not only my profession but a lot of other ones, was how they teach you to problem solve.”

Although the fast-paced lifestyle might seem stressful, Larson sees it as a rewarding challenge.

“That’s kind of the beauty of sports in general, or even recreation. It’s never perfect,” Larson said. “You have to be able to think, do things your own way, problem-solve and figure out how you feel best fits your team, your culture, your park district.”

Larson emphasized that the RST program equips students to handle real-world situations. One hallmark of the program is its focus on practical experience. Reflecting on his coursework, Larson recalled a group project where he and his peers organized a kids’ day for the Stephens Family YMCA in Champaign.

“That was a good reminder of what it means to be service driven,” Larson said. “In the moment, you think, ‘Group project,’ and you have to go hang out with kids for four hours, and I probably wasn’t as excited to do it. But I felt like afterwards, I got a lot out of it, purely because it forced me to be in a mindset of serving others.”

After his sophomore year, he landed a summer internship with the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets. Through that experience, he made connections with the Spurs organization, which led to an internship in Austin after graduation. However, Larson noted that it didn’t begin with fun and glamour.

“You just do the laundry, you do the film, you do all the grunt work, and drive the players and vans … and clean apartments,” Larson said.

He then spent two years as the basketball operations assistant for the San Antonio Spurs before becoming the general manager of the Austin Spurs last May. His current responsibilities include managing players and coaches and supporting the coaching staff with resources for team building and player development.

Larson’s dedication to basketball was evident long before he entered the professional world. He started volunteering at Illinois men’s basketball summer camps the summer before he began college, eventually becoming a team manager for four years and serving as head manager his senior year. His relentless work ethic caught the attention of the coaching staff, and through networking within the program, he was able to make key connections that helped propel his career forward.

Jenny Larson said dedication has always been a part of her son’s work ethic.

“He was the first one in the office when he interned at the Charlotte Hornets, and he was the last one to leave,” Jenny Larson said. “It’ll be 7 at night when I call him, and he’d say, ‘I’m still in the office,’ and I’d ask him, ‘Why are you still in the office?’ and he’d say, ‘Because my boss hasn’t left.”

Josh showed his dedication to his mom on another occasion when he was in high school and met with Mike Raycraft, a clinical associate professor in the RST program. Raycraft helped Larson figure out his interests and potential career paths.

“He dressed up in a suit. He’s a junior in high school and he walks into meeting him, and he’s serious,” Jenny Larson said. “Josh put himself out there. He had to be extremely nervous, going in and talking to a professor. But he did it and I know it helped him grow and get to where he is today.”

Josh Larson said Raycraft was one of the most influential figures in his career.

“For him to do that, it meant a lot to me,” Larson said. “He was a massive influence, not only going to the university, but even after I got there. His care and attention to his students, not only with me, but you could see it with other people too.”

Another enduring takeaway from the RST program was its strong sense of community. Larson said he frequently encounters former classmates while traveling for work.

“A lot of people—we stay in touch still, so I think that, again, is a testament to the quality of people that the major tracks,” Larson said. “You get to have lifelong connections with people that you know you’re going to be working with. You can call for advice—they know what you’re going through and they can probably give you better advice than anybody.”

Larson explained that the program introduces students to diverse perspectives, which become invaluable when collaborating with others in the future.

“Even aside from just the classes and the curriculum that you learn, I think the people you meet is what makes it worth the while in the end,” Larson said.

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Tags: alumni, Josh Larson, RST Newsletter Spring 2025

Student Spotlight: Kaley Graves, from patient to practitioner

Aug. 22, 2023 | Ethan Simmons

Audiology wasn’t initially Graves’ field of choice—she graduated from University of Illinois Springfield in 2011 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology

Third-year audiology doctoral student Kaley Graves is missing the first week of classes this fall, but she has a great excuse.

Thanks to her sterling accomplishments as a budding audiologist, she’s on an all-expenses-paid trip to visit one of the premier hearing aid manufacturers in the world: Oticon’s headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark.

“I had to reread that email six times to make sure it said ‘Denmark’ and not ‘Denver, Colorado,’ or something,” Graves said. It’ll be her first time out of the United States.

Earlier this year, Graves was selected as one of six recipients of the American Academy of Audiology Foundation’s Empowering Student Scholarship, sponsored by Oticon and awarded to students who show “exceptional promise” as future clinical audiologists.

“I have hearing aids in both ears, so I’ve been the patient my entire life,” Graves said. “Now I’m on the other side of the booth and can be the clinician, which I think is so fun.”

Graves grew up in Monticello, Ill., a half-hour drive from the University of Illinois campus. Audiology wasn’t initially her field of choice—she graduated from University of Illinois Springfield in 2011 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology.

That career path didn’t fit, but Graves found her way into intriguing research projects that focused on hearing and visual cues. One of her undergraduate mentors encouraged her to apply for a behavioral neuroscience position at the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, also in Springfield, where she studied the development of tinnitus in lab rats.

Graves went on to perform hearing research for a decade, but she craved more human connection on the job. A suggestion from her own doctor set Graves on her current course.

“I was admittedly kind of a pain in the butt to my current audiologist about all the things that she was constantly doing to my hearing aids and all of the things that she would do on a daily basis with her patients,” Graves said.

“And she eventually was like: ‘You should probably just get into this field. You’ve already got the hearing background, go deal with people—it’s more fun.” Graves’ mother was especially encouraging of her daughter’s new career path. When her parents first discovered their child had hearing loss, “it was terrifying,” Graves said.

“[My mom] said for patients, especially families that have young kids who are finding out their child has a hearing loss, it’s going to be huge for them to see their doctor has a hearing loss and can be successful in life.”

Today, Graves keeps busy as president of the Student Academy of Audiology chapter at Illinois. The registered student organization doubles as a networking site for SHS students and an outreach arm for the department.

A few events they’ve taken on: Hearing safety stand-ups at the Urbana’s Market at the Square, free hearing screenings in the SHS building, and recently, cerumen (earwax) removals for the ClarkLindsey Village retirement community.

Especially for older adults, earwax buildups can be a primary cause of muffled hearing, Graves said. Graves and another member of her graduate cohort cleared residents’ ears while a handful of first-year students in the audiology program cleaned their hearing aids.

“Being able to do a minimal amount of work over two hours to improve their quality of life was huge,” Graves said. “So many people left that room super happy.”

Her audiology work extends to Illinois’ student population as well. Graves has booked a hearing safety presentation in the fall for the student bandmates of the Marching Illini.

“The first thing that I’m really going to try and drive home to them is to please wear ear plugs when you’re out and constantly practicing,” Graves said. “We were taught first year what the acceptable levels of noise exposure are over X amount of time. If they’re out practicing for four hours and it’s about 90 decibels, they need to do something to mitigate the effects of those loud noises.”

For now, though, Graves is preparing her Denmark itinerary: visiting Tivoli Gardens, one of the world’s oldest amusement parks, and seeing the Danish Crown Jewels. “I’m super excited to go be a tourist,” she said.

Of course, she’s ready for her Oticon visit. “They do a lot of innovation, they do a lot of workshops, they do a lot of Ph.D. student type-things,” Graves said. “I am just really, really fascinated by what I’m going to see behind the scenes at their research center.”

Editor’s note:

To reach Ethan Simmons, email ecsimmon@illinois.edu.

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Tags: alumni, Kaley Graves

How Joe Rank became a Chez Center guide

June 20, 2023 | Ethan Simmons

Joe Rank is helping sustain a campus resource he could’ve used as a military Veteran who returned for further education: The Chez Veterans Center

*Joe Rank, left, stands with his son Jay Rank at the WWII Memorial. Rank, a Vietnam War Veteran, recently returned from an Honor Flight visit to Washington, D.C. (Photo provided)*

By the fall of 1965, the conflict between North and South Vietnam had escalated, as had the United States’ military involvement. With the draft looming, Urbana teenager Joe Rank, newly enrolled at the University of Illinois, joined the Naval ROTC unit at the advice of one of his fraternity brothers a year after reserve officer training was no longer compulsory.

After four years as an undergraduate student majoring in advertising, Rank was deployed to Vietnam, where his responsibilities included pinging enemy submarines and managing gunners aboard the destroyer USS Lyman K. Swenson and the cruiser USS England.

Following his three-year tour, Rank returned to the university and embarked on several career journeys. He taught new cohorts of reserve officers, helmed a $20 million Navy advertising campaign, and developed two decades of relationships at the University of Illinois Alumni Association.

“If anybody 55 years ago said ‘You’re going to make a career of the Navy,’ I would’ve told them they were absolutely crazy,” Rank said. “All of life’s twists and turns, I couldn’t have planned it.”

The retired Rank, now 76, is helping sustain a campus resource he could’ve used as a military Veteran who returned for further education: The Chez Veterans Center.

“Joe is a bridge between the university’s deep history in the Veteran community and what the future can be,” said Chez Director of Operations Andy Bender. “Joe has the passion for this work, being able to take the things we need and then bringing in the support to do it.”

“They’ve got a clear mission now to serve all veterans,” Rank said of the Chez Center. “Veterans bring diversity to the campus.”

Rank, who lives in Urbana with his wife Pam, has strong ties with his identities as an Illinois alumnus and Veteran. He recently returned from an Honor Flight, a no-cost, full-day visit to military memorials in Washington, D.C., with 96 other Vietnam Veterans and three from the Korean War.

Witnessing historic monuments such as the Arlington National Cemetery and feeling warm receptions at every point led to an unforgettable experience. At the Vietnam Memorial Wall, Rank made a charcoal rubbing of the etched name of Marine Corps 2nd Lt. David Skibbe, a fellow Illinois Naval ROTC officer who died during a mission in 1970.

“He was just an outstanding leader,” Rank said. “His death brought the war close to home for me.”

Rank has stayed in the University of Illinois orbit since he was a kid. His mother worked in the Dean’s Office of the College of Commerce, now the Gies College of Business. Many of his friends coming up through Urbana High School were children of professors.

When he returned from Vietnam, Rank became an instructor for Illinois ROTC classes, earning the title of assistant professor of Naval Science while obtaining his master’s degree in advertising.

Three years of 18-hour days in Vietnam made the daily study grind feel easy.

They’ve got a clear mission now to serve all veterans,” Rank said of the Chez Center. “Veterans bring diversity to the campus.

Joe Rank

Vietnam War Veteran and Illinois alumnus

“I was at the library at 8 o’clock in the morning, got my work done by 4 p.m.,” Rank said. “I had that discipline—I got one B in graduate school.”

Rank soon went back to sea, when the Navy did something that “didn’t make much sense” to him at the time: Brought Rank in as director of National Advertising for Navy recruiting.

During his tenure, the Navy unveiled the “It’s Not a Job, It’s an Adventure” advertising slogan that rippled across national airwaves in the early 1980s. The campaign even inspired an infamous sketch from “Saturday Night Live.”

“You know you had a successful campaign when it was parodied on SNL,” Rank said.

After 20 years of active-duty service, Rank faced the test of reintegrating into civilian life and passed with flying colors. The mission of the Chez Center has connected with him from the start.

While serving as vice president of membership and marketing at the Alumni Association, he was brought into an ad hoc committee to address the vision of Chez, then known as the Center for Wounded Veterans in Higher Education.

“The intent was it would be much like (Disability Resources and Educational Services) was for the World War II Vets. It would accommodate severely, profoundly injured military veterans who wanted to come back to college.”

The technology of war has changed and casualties have decreased. As that cohort of seriously injured Veterans of college age dried up, the question was how to transform the center’s mission.

Like DRES, Chez has morphed its service to apply to a wider range of students and staff. On the advisory committee, the word “wounded” was eliminated from the title, as Chez became a one-stop shop for campus folks with military connections.

“Originally, it was a welcoming cocoon for people to recreate that military atmosphere and camaraderie. But in reality, the whole idea is to get people comfortable enough with the university and the civilian environment and push them out, get them involved in their major,” Rank said.

“The idea is not to segregate them into a pseudo military unit, but get them comfortable with what they’re going to experience in civilian life.”

Rank’s support of the Chez Center is multifaceted, as both a donor and member of its advisory board.

“He’s a great sounding board for me,” Bender said. “He’s been a part of this project since the very beginning.”

“He’s a great supporter of us, of the Veterans, and of the university at large.”

Editor’s note:

To reach Ethan Simmons, email ecsimmon@illinois.edu.

Tags: alumni, Chez Veterans Center, Joe Rank

RST alumna Simmons discusses the importance of giving back

July 25, 2024 | Sam Rink

*RST alumna Julie Simmons has joined AHS’ Board of Visitors (Photo provided)*

Pivotal. That is how Julie Simmons, chief operating officer and co-founder of Paragon Marketing Group, described her experience earning a master’s degree in Recreation, Sport and Tourism at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The experience not only influenced her successful career in sports marketing, but also led her to where she is now, continually offering her generosity to the community that fostered her professional growth.

“When you truly learn and you really take to heart the lessons from your college experiences, I think you naturally want to give back to and support the institution that shaped you,” Simmons said.

Simmons has spent much of her career giving back to her alma mater, opening Paragon’s doors to current students in the form of mentorship and scholarships. The company sponsors four scholarships—one within Illinois’ own RST program as well as at Northern Illinois University, Illinois State University and DePaul University.

For years, Paragon has also facilitated a number of internships with students in RST, as well as from other area universities.

“We strive for diversity in our recruitment, but supporting institutions within Illinois is particularly important to us,” Simmons said. “And because many of these applicants are local, it reduces the financial burden of internships and makes these opportunities more accessible.”

Internships at Paragon offer hands-on experience with sports marketing, priming students to work on a wide variety of client projects. According to Simmons, interns are exposed to different areas of the business including strategy, event logistics and planning, providing them with a broad understanding of the industry.

“For us, it’s about providing interns with a positive, real-world experience that equips them with the knowledge they need to pursue a career in sports marketing,” she said.

But Simmons didn’t want to stop at simply providing internships and scholarships. She is now part of the College of Applied Health Sciences’ Board of Visitors, an advisory board of volunteer alumni who aim to assist and advocate for the college’s goals. Simmons was nominated to the board in January of 2024 by Jean Driscoll, the assistant dean for advancement, who said “her [Simmons’] experience, leadership, and passion for service make her a wonderful addition to the board. Her accomplishments are too numerous to name, and the BOV will be a beneficiary of her talents and ideas.”

“I’m truly excited and honored that Jean nominated me for this position,” Simmons said. “For me, this is another way to give back to a place where I experienced tremendous growth.”

Simmons not only has her own professional expertise and experience on the corporate side of scholarships to offer the board, but also her unique experience as a woman owner in a male-dominated industry.

“When I started out, I was often the only woman in a room full of men, and that’s still often the case,” she said. “One of the most important things I learned was the value of finding advocates for myself and other women. Building that support network is crucial. When I worked at the University of Illinois in the athletic environment, I was the only woman on the promotions team for quite a while. Despite that, everyone was welcoming and open, showing me that you can coexist and support each other.”

Those experiences of positive mentorship are a large part of Simmons’ motivation to join the Board of Visitors, but she has yet another personal connection that draws her toward supporting an institution of learning. Simmons, being the first person in her family to go to college, has a particular appreciation for the privilege of higher education, especially for going on to receive her master’s degree from Illinois.

“If I didn’t have others helping me along the way, great mentors to guide me and people encouraging me to expand my horizons, I wouldn’t be where I am today. That’s what I want to do, as well. I want to provide others with the information they need, whether it’s about the sports industry, being a woman business owner or the importance of education. It’s all about paying it forward.”

Simmons reflected on the impact of a positive learning environment on her career and how it has influenced her and her peers to continue working with the university, recalling her time working with Michael Raycraft, a clinical associate professor in RST, and Stephen Staples, a member of the board.

“That’s why it was pivotal for me, and that’s why I feel very passionate about trying to give something back to something that really helped me.”

When it comes to her future on the board, Simmons expressed her excitement to join the Nominating and Governance Committee.

“I’m excited to be able to bring my background and experience,” she said. “I look forward to contributing substance and value to our initiatives. I’m excited to get some more meat on the bones.”

Tags: alumni, College of Applied Health Sciences, Julia Simmons

Student Spotlight: Charlie Nudelman, a trained ear

May 10, 2023 | Ethan Simmons

Nudelman was raised by a speech language pathologist: His mother

*Charles Nudelman, right, with adviser Pasquale Bottalico*

What comes to mind when you hear “professional voice-user?” Perhaps the image of an opera singer or a sports announcer pops in your head.

Ask Department of Speech and Hearing Science doctoral candidate Charles Nudelman, and he’ll conjure dozens of examples: Canvassers, radio DJs, telemarketers, clergy and lawyers are just a few of the professions who’ve come to him with vocal problems.

“The voice is something I feel like we take for granted—we wake up in the morning and expect everything to go fine,” Nudelman said. “If you’re relying on your voice for your job, hoarseness is going to get worse as you use it. And there’s a lot of costs related to that.”

After spending a year diagnosing voice issues in a clinical setting, 2019 SHS graduate Nudelman has returned to his alma mater to obtain his doctorate, focusing his research on preventing vocal disorders for the near-30 percent of adults who face them.

Nudelman, from Gurnee, Ill., was raised by a speech language pathologist: His mother. But he came to the University of Illinois with his major undeclared, initially hoping to veer from the course she traveled.

“I wanted to carve out my own path, but I ended up loving the classes and loving the faculty of (SHS),” Nudelman said. “That’s what drew me here to the U. of I., knowing regardless of the path I took I would have a really good education. And it was true.”

Under his advisor and friend SHS Associate Professor Pasquale Bottalico, Nudelman has become a decorated student researcher within the department, receiving the Phyllis Ariens Burkhead Memorial Fellowship and the Elaine Paden Award this spring.

And for his presentation at 2023’s “Research Live!,” where graduate students describe their own studies to a judge panel of high school juniors, he came away with the grand prize of $500.

From the start of his undergraduate experience, Nudelman was using his communication skills often, joining student radio and broadcasting Illinois athletics events through Big Ten Network’s Student U.

“It brought me to figure out what exactly is the voice, how does it work, what is this instrument we all have? And how can I make it better while I’m on TV? That’s a wormhole to itself, and I’m still living in it.”

Those questions brought him to SHS 301: General Speech Science, taught by then-first-year Assistant Professor Bottalico. Nudelman sat in the front row every lecture, taking copious notes. He quickly attached to Bottalico’s “distinct” teaching style, and gratefully accepted an invite to his lab.

For the better part of six years, the pair have worked “nonstop” on projects together, even when Nudelman left to obtain his master’s degree from the MGH Institute for Health Professions in Boston. Now back at the Illinois, he’s set to obtain his Ph.D. in 2025.

“The stars aligned, he’s an amazing mentor and friend and person,” Nudelman said. “He’s not only looking to open doors for me but any person who works with him.”

What’s “astonished” Bottalico about his mentee is how Nudelman has responded to escalating expectations with every new research project. Just one year into his Ph.D. program, Nudelman’s research output is already comparable to that of an advanced scholar, Bottalico said.

“I have a very high standard, it’s not easy to surprise me.” Bottalico said. “And Charlie has done it constantly since we met.”

Nudelman’s winning study for Research Live! took a close look at the vocal performance of teachers. He used a virtual reality headset to simulate various classroom environments for 30 schoolteachers, closely monitoring the acoustics of their voices.

What it showed: Teachers who spoke to virtual classrooms fuller with simulated students reported more vocal discomfort and fatigue, Nudelman said, while larger virtual classrooms negatively affected the teachers’ voice quality.

“I think it’s something to think about within classrooms when class sizes are only increasing and we want our teachers to be comfortable,” Nudelman said. “I guess I’m a proponent for smaller class sizes based on this study.”

He has his sights set on a career in academia, “hopefully being a mentor like Dr. Bottalico has been to me to as many students as I can,” he said. But the doctoral student finds fulfillment in making research accessible to the general public as well.

For example: Instead of clearing your throat before speaking, sip on some water. Avoid whispering — it’s worse for your voice than just talking. And if you’re speaking to a large group, use a microphone and take pauses to breathe to avoid hoarseness afterward.

It’s this brand of practical science that made Nudelman feel right at home at AHS.

“It doesn’t matter what AHS major you are, you’re working with people to improve their quality of life,” he said. “Even though we’re all doing different things, the goal is the same, and you can feel that whenever you’re interacting with anyone in this college.

“It’s a great place to come if you’re interested in helping people.”

Editor’s note:

To reach Ethan Simmons, email ecsimmon@illinois.edu.

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Tags: alumni, Charles Nudelman, Pasquale Bottalico

Serving the profession through mentorship

July 10, 2022 | Anna Flanagan

A CFY pairs a first-year practitioner with an experienced practitioner in a mentoring relationship designed to ease the transition between student and independent provider of clinical services

When students take on their first professional position after completing their master’s degrees in speech and hearing science with a focus on speech-language pathology, they must also begin what is called a Clinical Fellowship Year, or CFY, required by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) to earn the Certificate of Clinical Competence in Speech-Language Pathology (CCC-SLP). The CFY pairs a first-year practitioner with an experienced practitioner in a mentoring relationship designed to ease the transition between student and independent provider of clinical services.

Theodora Papastratakos completed her master’s degree in 2015 and her CFY during the 2015-2016 school year, her first with Aldrin Elementary School in Schaumburg.

“You dive right in, which is why you have a clinical fellowship supervisor,” she said. “It’s so different from being in graduate school and doing your clinical externships versus managing your own caseload. It’s a big leap.”

She found her own CFY experience positive, but also knew there were things she would have liked to change. During her first several years of practice at Aldrin Elementary, Theo felt she was still learning so much that she could not supervise a clinical fellowship. In the fall of 2021, the department head reached out to her to see if she’d be willing to supervise a new SLP who would be joining the school part time.

“I’d been practicing for seven years, and I think I realized that I do know a lot,” she said. “I was excited to share some of that knowledge with somebody coming into the field.”

She took the training course offered by ASHA and welcomed May 2021 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign SHS graduate Rachel Deichstetter to Aldrin Elementary as her first mentee. Some of Theo’s role involved just being available to Rachel to answer questions, walk her through district policies and procedures, and give feedback on her ideas.

“I would review her goals and the reports that she was writing and help her as needed,” Theo said. “I watched some of her therapy sessions and gave her feedback throughout the year. If she was experiencing something for the first time, I might help a little bit more. Toward the end of the year, she was practicing independently.”

Theo enjoyed assisting with Rachel’s transition from student to professional and working with someone fresh out of graduate school. “It was fun to see her gain more confidence throughout the year,” she said. “Sometimes when you’ve been practicing for a while, you get stuck in what you’re doing. Rachel brought fresh ideas and new ways of doing things.”

Theo will continue working at Aldrin Elementary while Rachel joins another school in the Schaumburg district for 2022-2023. “I’ll remain a resource for her in the future if she has questions or needs to bounce ideas off someone,” she said. She looks forward to her next opportunity to supervise a clinical fellow and mentor another budding speech-language pathologist into the profession.

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Tags: alumni

Oversen’s road to a Fulbright grant was paved by family

June 27, 2022 | Vince Lara-Cinisomo

Spanish was spoken in her childhood home

*When she completes her Fulbright stay, Amanda Oversen plans on applying for graduate school*

Amanda Oversen’s interest in linguistics has a very clear inspiration: her mom.

Oversen, a Speech and Hearing Science major who graduated in December 2021, was recently awarded a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to Spain. Her goal is to become a bilingual speech-language pathologist for elementary school-aged students.

That makes sense given her curiosity about languages, which she credits to her mother.

“My mom is from Honduras. She immigrated to the U.S. when she was 16. And interestingly enough, she moved to the U.S. because she wanted to learn English. She also has this curiosity about language, which I think kind of rubbed off on me,” Oversen said.

While in Spain, Oversen plans to learn Spanish Sign Language and connect with the local deaf community. She also is interested in how to cultivate cultural-linguistic diversity in the American school system.

“I think when we learn a different language, it opens up just so many doors,” she said. “You’re able to understand people on a different level. I find that really fascinating. I think a lot of that had to do with my mom growing up bilingual, too.”

Oversen, who is from Highland Park, Ill., served as a teaching assistant in the Child Development Laboratory in SHS, which amplified her desire to work with children.

“I loved how curious kids were, and how everything was new to them, how the tiniest thing—something that comes so commonly to adults—was mind-blowing to kids,” she said. “I just love the fascination that they had with things that adults take for granted. I think it would just be cool to help kids progress, and find confidence in their voice, despite the fact that they may have a speech or a language disorder.”

Picking Spain for her Fulbright application was an easy choice. Spanish was spoken in her childhood home, and she studied abroad in southern Granada during her sophomore year. Teaching in Spain has a family connection as well, as Oversen’s brother went there to teach English.

This time, Oversen will be stationed in the Canary Islands.

“The Canary Islands was never really on my radar, so when I found out I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s going to be quite an experience.’ I’ve never lived on an island before.”

Since graduation, Oversen has been working as an assistant teacher at an early childhood education center in Northbrook, Ill. When she completes her Fulbright stay, she plans on applying for graduate school, with the University of Illinois on the list.

“I’ve made kind of a master list of graduate schools. Almost all the schools are in Illinois, and a few out-of-state options. But I think I’d like to stay close to home, whether that be in Champaign or in Chicago.”

Editor’s note:

To reach Vince Lara-Cinisomo, email vinlara@illinois.edu.

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Tags: alumni, Amanda Oversen, Fulbright

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