Tag: Department of Speech and Hearing Science

A message to Speech and Hearing Science, from Department Head Georgia Malandraki

Feb 02, 2026 | AHS Staff

“I welcome perspectives from everyone (…) because the future we create together will be stronger for it.“

Georgia Malandraki, professor and department head of Speech and Hearing Science, has begun her second month as department head. (Ethan Simmons/College of AHS)

Dear Speech and Hearing Science community,

It is with pride and a deep sense of responsibility that I begin my role as Head of the Department of Speech and Hearing Science. Returning to Illinois, where I completed my Ph.D. and where many of our distinguished faculty shaped my early career, feels like coming home. It is both humbling and exciting to now have the opportunity to give back to the community that supported me from the start.

Over the past several months, I have begun to learn the many stories, strengths, and aspirations that make SHS such a vibrant community. Every conversation with faculty, staff, and students has reminded me of something I have known since I was a student here: SHS is a community where excellence and compassion go hand in hand, and where people genuinely care about making an impact. I am grateful to join you as we continue building on that foundation together.

I am thankful to be joining the department at a time of remarkable momentum, built under the leadership of former Head and Professor Pamela Hadley and Dean Cheryl Hanley Maxwell. The shared governance model, the selfless and dedicated service of faculty, the collective passion for impactful research and clinical training, and the strong commitment to inclusion that I have witnessed during this transition are outstanding.

Equally impressive is the work ethic and dedication of our faculty, staff, and students, clear indicators of the remarkable potential ahead. Importantly, the support and enriching environment provided by the College of Applied Health Sciences and the University as a whole foster collaboration, innovation, and sustained excellence, creating the conditions for SHS to grow and continue its legacy as one of the leading departments in the state and the country.

As we look toward the future, I see a department that not only sustains this legacy but continues to grow its reach locally, nationally, and globally. Together, we will focus on our shared goals:

  • Strengthening our position as a global leader in research and clinical training in communication sciences and disorders
  • Empowering students through exceptional and forward-thinking education
  • Expanding our engagement with communities and partners who rely on our expertise
  • Growing the resources and support needed to enhance discovery, education, and service

These are meaningful goals, and I am confident we can achieve them. The talent, commitment, and heart I see within SHS are truly remarkable.

In the coming months, I look forward to hearing your ideas, learning from your experiences, and working with you to shape the next chapter of SHS. I welcome perspectives from everyone—students, alumni, faculty, staff and friends—because the future we create together will be stronger for it.

Thank you for the very warm welcome. I am inspired by this department, energized by its potential, and honored to walk forward with you.

With warmest regards,
Georgia A. Malandraki, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, BCS-S, ASHA Fellow
Professor and Head

Share on social

Tags: , , ,

Related news

Bruce Willis’ diagnosis brings aphasia to forefront

May 23, 2022 | Vince Lara-Cinisomo

More than 2 million people live with aphasia in the U.S.

Bruce Willis’ aphasia diagnosis went public in April 2022.

Aphasia is a communication disorder that affects understanding and expression. It can make it difficult to speak, write, listen, and read. But despite its dire impact on people, aphasia is not a well-known condition. In fact, according to a 2016 survey by the National Aphasia Association (NAA), less than 10 percent of respondents knew what aphasia was.

But the announcement in April 2022 that Bruce Willis would be stepping away from acting following an aphasia diagnosis has raised awareness of the affliction, said Abby Franz, a speech pathologist and clinical instructor in the Department of Speech & Hearing Science at University of Illinois.

“I feel awful for the family and his situation and that he has that diagnosis,” Franz said. “But in 2016, the NAA conducted a survey and found only 8.8 percent of the respondents knew what aphasia was and correctly identified it as a language disorder. So certainly Bruce Wilson’s diagnosis can bring awareness to aphasia. But it’s common. More than two million people are living with aphasia in the United States, and for only 8 percent of the general population to know what it is and know that it was a language disorder, that’s pretty significant.”

Aphasia is an acquired communication disorder, Franz said, which means that it’s something that happens during the course of a life. It’s not something that is present from birth. It is an acquired neurogenic communication disorder, usually as a result of a stroke or some type of brain injury, she said.

There are many types of aphasia, and they are usually diagnosed based on which area of the language-dominant side of the brain is affected and the extent of the damage.

“Typically, it is something traumatic like a type of traumatic brain injury, either they’ve fallen, they’ve hit their head, they’ve been in a car accident, which has affected the area of the brain that controls our speech and language, or a sudden stroke that has left them with difficulty with speech and language,” Franz said.

“But there is another type of aphasia called primary progressive aphasia. That is a degenerative disease that is caused by a type of dementia—frontotemporal lobe dementia. It isn’t a sudden onset change in language. It’s a gradual deterioration of brain tissue in the frontal lobe of our brain that causes, over time, kind of your language to really deteriorate and comprehension of language to deteriorate.”

Franz did not want to speculate about whether Willis has primary progressive aphasia (PPA), but said what she read about his diagnosis lead her to believe he is afflicted with PPA.

“When you have a stroke, it just happens, like suddenly onset. So there wouldn’t be this gradual deterioration” of what has been speculated to have happened to Willis, she said.

Primary progressive aphasia symptoms are akin to dementia. Franz said, with primary progressive aphasia, there would be difficulty with word finding, difficulty sometimes with even just the production of speech, or more effortful for them to even just formulate a sound. They may have a loss in just the fluency of speech as well as the comprehension of speech.

“Somebody who has primary progressive aphasia, if I showed him (a pen), he or she may not be able to name it, but then they also may not even be able to tell me what it does. So they lose that ability to even know this is a pen and we write with it,” she said.

As a speech language pathologist, Franz said she makes aphasia determinations based on how patients perform on certain tasks during a language assessment.

“We’re also testing their comprehension of language. We’re looking at their ability to follow simple directions, follow two-step directions. And we’re looking also at their ability to write after a stroke or after a brain injury because sometimes those go hand-in-hand with the loss of language.”

That said, an aphasia diagnosis is not always without hope. With the help of rehabilitation intervention provided by a speech-language pathologist, people with aphasia from a stroke or other brain injury can improve. SLPs partner with people with aphasia and their families to improve communication skills and develop strategies to support their communication strengths, and may assist with using an augmentative and alternative communication speech devices for those individuals if needed.

However, Franz speculates that because Willis’ family said the actor would pull back from public appearances, she believes he has primary progressive aphasia, and that the prognosis for that is not promising. According to the NAA, the average life expectancy from onset of the disease is 8 to 10 years.

“It is that dire when you get that diagnosis,” Franz said. “It’s a very slow progression of the loss of their communication and along with this kind of dementia too that goes along with it.”

Talking about PPA is “very personal” to Franz.

“My parents’ best friend was diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia in 2017,” she said. “And he’s still living. I see the professional side of it. But now I’m living it on a personal note. And it’s been very hard.

“When he got the diagnosis, I had to do a lot of education with my family about it, especially my parents. Because this was their best friend, and he’s been a part of my life since I was born. And you know, I had to educate them a lot about what primary progressive aphasia is and what it’s going to look like at the end of life. So that is not a great diagnosis to have. So I understand, for the family, why they are probably wanting to shield Bruce Willis from being in the public eye.”

When a public figure such as Willis is afflicted, it often brings an opportunity to educate people about a disease or medical condition.

“The National Aphasia Association is a great website and a great reference for anybody to learn more about aphasia or just to understand more about what it is, and find support groups, within your local community,” Franz said. “It’s a great reference and website to look for if you have a family member or know somebody who has been given the diagnosis of aphasia.”

For more information about aphasia, go to https://www.aphasia.org/


 

Tags: , , ,

Related news

Grant to help researcher study difference in hearing for preterm babies

June 08, 2020 | Vince Lara-Cinisomo

Project aims to compare fetal auditory exposures in the womb and in the neonatal intensive care unit

Brian Monson in his office (Credit: Brian L. Stauffer)

A researcher in the Department of Speech and Hearing Science in the College of Applied Health Sciences has received funding to determine the difference in language exposures for preterm infants relative to what they would be hearing if they were still in the womb. 

SHS assistant professor Brian Monson earned a $300,000 grant from the National Institute of Deafness and Communication Disorders for his project entitled, “Auditory experience during the prenatal and perinatal period.”

Monson said the aims of the project include comparing typical fetal auditory exposures in the womb to preterm infant auditory exposures in the neonatal intensive care unit, and assessing the effect of these exposures on auditory neurodevelopment. The study, he said, is being conducted in collaboration with Carle Hospital, with the long-term goal of optimizing auditory exposures for preterm infants to foster healthy brain development in the neonatal intensive care unit.

“We also hope to see whether these differences in exposures have an effect on later brain and language development,” Monson said.

The grant from the NIDCD—which is part of the National Institutes of Health—helps extend upon research Monson undertook with funding from a Center for Health, Aging & Disability (CHAD) pilot grant.

Monson said the plan is to enroll 100 preterm infants and 100 pregnant women who carry to full term, with recruiting done locally of pregnant women from the Champaign-Urbana community and NICU patients from Carle Hospital. He said data collection had begun and that he had about 30 subjects in each group.

Once differences between exposures in the NICU vs. the womb are established, Monson said, the next step would be to develop an intervention that enhances NICU auditory exposures (e.g., by increasing language exposure) and assess the effects of this intervention with a clinical trial.  “We also plan to continue following up with the current study’s babies later in childhood,” he said.

“One out of every 10 babies born in Illinois is born premature, which is similar to the national rate,” Monson said. “Because of this, we feel this project is critically important as it will lead to improved health outcomes for our community’s tiniest human beings.”

Editor’s note:

To reach Brian Monson, email monson@illinois.edu.
 

Tags: , , ,

Related news

A Few Minutes With … adjusting to online instruction during COVID-19

April 14, 2020 | Vince Lara

Handling the transition to online instruction

Vince Lara of the College of Applied Health Sciences at the University of Illinois speaks with Keiko Ishikawa of the Speech and Hearing Science Department and Neha Gothe of the department of Kinesiology and Community Health about the transition to online instruction at Illinois.

Watch the interview
Transcript

VINCE LARA: Hi, and welcome to another edition of “A Few Minutes With,” the podcast that showcases Illinois’ College of Applied Health Sciences. I’m Vince Lara, and today I’m speaking with Keiko Ishikawa of Speech and Hearing Science and Neha Gothe of Kinesiology and Community Health about the transition to online instruction during the coronavirus crisis.

So just a simple question, where are you setting up in your house as you transition into this world of online instruction?

KEIKO ISHIKAWA: Well, I actually set up a home office at my house. I didn’t have a really official space from home before. But we actually created a room for me to work in next eight weeks.

VINCE LARA: That’s great. How about you, Neha?

NEHA GOTHE: Yeah, I think a similar situation for me as well. We have an office space in our house. And so I have a standing desk. I was able to connect with the AHS IT team and get all the more access softwares that I need on my laptop so I am able to access– and also remotely access my office computer if I need some documents or some softwares.

VINCE LARA: Have either of you had online instruction prior to this, whether it’s with Illinois or any other university?

KEIKO ISHIKAWA: I will start. So yes, I actually tried to make a hybrid course last semester for AHS 300, which is the undergraduate level anatomy and physiology course. So in that class– in half of the class, which is almost all the lectures, were done online. And then class met for laboratory activities. So I was not new to this type of online instruction. But full online instruction is a first for me.

VINCE LARA: How about you, Neha?

NEHA GOTHE: Yeah, this is completely new for me. I have never taught online classes before in any small or big capacity. So this was a first transition for me to use an online software, such as Zoom which has worked really well for us thus far, and connecting with students. And also trying to then adjust your syllabus coursework, grading rubric accordingly so things move on to a smoother transition.

I think in this situation what certainly did help was I was able to see and connect with my students for the first half of our semester. And so the students know me. I can put a name and a face together when I’m on Zoom with more than 100 students in one of my classes. And so it does certainly help to have had that in-person interaction prior to just switching to online.

VINCE LARA: Yeah, I’ve heard that anecdotally as well that that helped having that first part of the semester interaction. Do either of you think that this kind of experience would make it more likely that you’d be involved in online instruction in the future? Why don’t you start, Neha.

NEHA GOTHE: For me, certainly. I think I have already been thinking and brainstorming about ideas in which I could either transition my course to an online course or perhaps think of a hybrid format. So perhaps meeting in person for once a week and then doing some other activities for the course remotely. And I think to some extent it does work to my advantage being in the field of kinesiology and community health.

All our coursework is very applied, at least the coursework that I teach in the context of health and behavior, health promotion, exercise and health, psychology. These are all the things that are very practically, very applicable to students. A lot of my assignments involve students to try something with their family or friends. And so I can really see this connection where I could do certainly the theory and instruction in person once a week and perhaps connect with my students remotely in a hybrid format.

VINCE LARA: And Keiko, what do you think?

KEIKO ISHIKAWA: Yes, it really, in a good way, forced me to be creative and think what else I can do for the class that I haven’t been preparing for online courses. And like Neha said, my classes typically are also very applied, so there’s some concrete knowledge that our students need to develop. And then those things are easily communicated via online courses or prerecorded lectures. So it’s really reasonable to do a hybrid format.

VINCE LARA: There are advantages to working from home, no commute, no dressing up. But are you– let’s start with you, Keiko. Are you enjoying working from home?

KEIKO ISHIKAWA: Yes and no, I would say.

VINCE LARA: Yes.

KEIKO ISHIKAWA: Yes because no commute. And it’s nice to have two minutes to my lunch break.

However, there are challenges. And also I’m missing my colleagues. It’s not the same. I’m all by myself in the house. So that is a disadvantage, I think.

VINCE LARA: And Neha, what do you think?

NEHA GOTHE: Yeah, I think even for me, I think the biggest change was not seeing any of my colleagues and students. So I think I had to get adjusted to that or trying to see them through Zoom meetings and online meetings that we set up. But in terms of working from home itself, I feel like sometimes it has been a struggle to draw boundaries just because you are at home.

You wake up. You get on with your work. And you’re just working all day. And so I feel like when I used to come into work at the university, I had kind of fixed hours. And I know that once I left my office, it was time to do other things. But that boundary has been shifted a little bit.

It’s a little more loose when I’m working from home. So there has definitely been some adjustments that I have made, and a schedule that I have created. And just some logistical edits that I have made my calendar, so that way, I can stay on task and still have kind of a work hour routine through the week.

VINCE LARA: Keiko, you mentioned technological challenges. Talk about some of those. Is it Zoom itself? Is it something else that’s been a challenge particularly?

KEIKO ISHIKAWA: OK, technological challenges. Well, I’m not sure at this point technological challenge-wise. So I haven’t tried the Zoom instruction– synchronous instruction this week.

VINCE LARA: OK.

KEIKO ISHIKAWA: That was just because we were not sure about the bandwidth, whether that was standard for all the classes to meet. So we’ll figure it out. We’ll test it out and see how that goes little by little. So I guess unknowns, what is that technology capable of and how much is what it can take is a challenge at this point.

VINCE LARA: Neha, what about you?

NEHA GOTHE: Yeah, I think since we’ve been transitioning to working from home and also having lectures online, I think without an IT department, you are really your own person to solve your tech problems. And so I think some of the most common issues I’ve had this first week after spring break is usually to do with low internet or poor internet connections, either on my end or on the other person’s end– either the student or a colleague.

Occasionally, some low quality video calls similar to the bandwidth situation that Keiko mentioned, and maybe sometimes some softwares or program which I wish I had access to and which are loaded on my work computer. But I don’t necessarily have an easy connection unless I do a remote access and jump through a few other hoops.

VINCE LARA: Right. Keiko, you mentioned you haven’t had synchronous classes yet, but I’m just wondering, maybe you can answer this anyway. What’s student participation been like?

KEIKO ISHIKAWA: So what I have done is– so I have asynchronous part, which I prerecord lectures, as I told you earlier. And so they’re supposed to watch this and work on the assignments. So it is, in a way, the classroom arrangement.So I have office hours that I established. And they are supposed to– I mean, they’re not supposed to, they are welcome to join me anytime, ask questions. This week in particular, I think they’re still adjusting. So only a few students have participated in the office hours. I’m hoping to see more faces virtually.

VINCE LARA: And how about you, Neha?

NEHA GOTHE: Yeah, the same for me. We’ve tried both with asynchronous and then, like Keiko does, recording my lectures and then posting a video. I’m really learning a lot about all of the features you can have, even built in Microsoft PowerPoint, when you can do your narration. And then you can also have your audio and screen slideshow recorded.So that as well as complementing it with the Zoom and being able to record your video in Zoom and screenshares. I think those two have been my go-to this first week, and both of them have worked really well for us. Also, one of the classes I teach is a lecture and discussion class. So it’s KINES 201, that’s Physical Activity Research Methods.

It’s a large class. It’s over 100 students. And I lecture for the class twice a week. And the students break out into smaller discussion groups with their teaching assistants for more in-depth knowledge and practice. And so those lab sections, my teaching assistants have been absolutely enjoying the synchronous through Zoom. I think they enjoy seeing the students.

Because it’s a small group, there is more of the possibility of having some more conversations and Q&As. And my TAs tell me that they absolutely love it. So I think there are definitely pros to both, and both have worked really well for me thus far.

VINCE LARA: Yeah, it’s interesting that you mentioned that because I was going to ask next about lab work or similar in-person instruction. And have either of you thought about or even started working on workarounds to lab work? Or even now that we can’t do in-person data collection any longer or in-person instruction, how do you work around those limitations? Keiko, you can answer first.

KEIKO ISHIKAWA: Yeah, I can start. So we actually were very timely in this matter that the US publishing online service study, which was just approved by IRB. So we were just in time to do this, and we are launching actually a survey risk of vocal injury in university faculty. And we included some of the questions regarding how this transition to online teaching have affected your voice use and whether you are feeling like your voice is getting tired more and what not. So that’s one of– actually just coincidentally is something that worked for us.

But at the same time, we are also looking into doing some experiments online. For example, we do speech perception studies, which listeners listen to some stimuli and then give us responses. So we are working very quickly to transition to online format for this kind of experiment.

VINCE LARA: Neha?

NEHA GOTHE: Yeah, so for us, it was a little bit different. We were amidst one of our research studies where it was a site-based exercise trial. So we invited participants to come to campus and exercise with us for a period of 12 weeks. And we were right smack in the middle. We were at week 6.

And so now, with no face-to-face in-person interaction, we have had to transition our exercise sessions remote or online. And then it’s been working well so far. We were a little bit hesitant since our population is older adults. And so we weren’t sure about how technology would be embraced by them.

But we’ve had Zoom meetings, again, synchronous Zoom exercise classes with our participants. And things have worked out really well so far. This has been the first week. But thus far, we’ve had less technical issues than I had anticipated.

For our study measurements, we have been trying to explore other opportunities and services, either through the university IT department or some other commercially available softwares. Qualtrics is a great resource that is available through the university. So for any questionnaire data that researchers might want to collect, Qualtrics would be a great place to launch your surveys online. And I’m connecting with some other colleagues in professional organizations to get some sense of how some of those other unique measurements could be collected online, which are not necessarily as simple as questionnaires.

VINCE LARA: I’m wondering what you both think of take-home exams. Why don’t you start, Keiko.

KEIKO ISHIKAWA: OK. Yes, exam is- how to administer exam online is something that I have to think about and I’m still making my plans for the final exam. Obviously, you cannot do a simple multiple choice questions–

VINCE LARA: Right.

KEIKO ISHIKAWA: –as you may do in the classrooms. So we need to alter the format of the questions and the type of questions you ask. So that is a challenge for sure. It will be much more time intensive on the side of graders. So yes, I’m finding that is a challenge.

VINCE LARA: And how about you, Neha?

NEHA GOTHE: Yeah, so I’ve been trying to go back and look through my rubric and grading rubrics. Thankfully, a variety of my assignments were online for students to do because they were take-home assignments. They had to try different kinds of exercise routines, and do a self-reflection about it. Or they were experiential activities. So those are largely unaffected by this transition.

But the exams, for sure, I’m connecting with my teaching assistants. And we are trying to make some judgment about what did we want students to know and learn for the course, and is there a way to evaluate that learning without having to do an exam necessarily. So we are also exploring other opportunities for grading, maybe adding in an assignment or two, or doing an in-person Q&A, or using some based polling during a class to make sure that the students have understood the content.

So I think my focus has—it was always to make sure that the exams are meant to evaluate the learning for the student in the course. But given this transition to an online format, I’m trying to explore ways in which I could test that learning in other settings.

VINCE LARA: Do either of you have students who are on internships that have gotten interrupted? And what do you do about that? Neha, if you want to handle that first.

NEHA GOTHE: Yeah, we have every semester between, I would say, 5 through 20 undergraduate research assistants. Since a lot of my research is campus-based, we have participants—research participants will come to our labs and participate in a variety of exercise, and fitness, and cognitive activities. We have had an army of undergraduate students who help us with all that in-person assessment and training.

So for them, I have had to creatively think of ways in which they could do other things remotely and still get somewhat of a research experience. So we have been doing and brainstorming ideas, such as doing an online journal club. So that would involve me giving an overview of the research process more towards the end of publications, manuscripts. How do we find the correct evidence? How do you read a journal article?

So for a lot of our undergraduate research students, these are new experiences, and they’re a little bit different from their day-to-day collection that they are used to. So I’m just exploring other ways in which I could give them glimpses of the research spectrum and the research experience without necessarily for them having to come into a lab and collect data.

VINCE LARA: Right. And Keiko, how about you?

KEIKO ISHIKAWA: OK, so for research experience in my lab, they are able to do a lot at home online. So we are not severely affected by it. Except that we were collecting data from audio screening clinic where we had a face-to-face interaction with the participants. So that had to stop.

And then that was—that is affecting a bit of the graduate students who are getting clinical practicum hours through the clinic. But that is only tip of an iceberg. We, as a clinical training program, our graduate students are severely affected by losing training sites, like schools and hospitals. They are unable to do their training at this point for indefinite time. We are very concerned about this.

And telehealth seems to be a really good solution to this problem. However, right now, we have a regulation where the telesupervision is not allowed. So we are quickly working to see how we can petition for changing this regulation, at least for the moment.

VINCE LARA: My thanks to Keiko and Neha. For more podcasts on Illinois’ College of Applied Health Sciences, search “A Few Minutes With” on iTunes, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Radio.com, and other places you get your podcast fix. Thanks for listening, and see next time.

Tags: , , , , ,

Related news

150 Years Strong

June 26, 2024 | AHS Staff

The roots of the College of Applied Health Sciences extend to the beginning of our university.

Founded in 1867, the University of Illinois celebrates 2017 as its sesquicentennial year as an international leader in education, research, and engagement. Over the last 150 years, University faculty, research staff, and students have been responsible for landmark achievements that have changed the world. These include the development of PLATO, the world’s first shared computer-based education system; the first multi-disciplinary research unit focused on children who struggled to learn, which led to the concept of “learning disabilities” and to new techniques of remedial education; and the development of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, which is widely used in medical diagnostics.

The roots of the modern-day College of Applied Health Sciences go back to the very beginning of what was then the Illinois Industrial University, when students were required to increase and maintain their physical health through the performance of manual labor. Physical education was formalized with the establishment of the Department of Physical Training in 1895, now the Department of Kinesiology and Community Health. Research in physical fitness led to groundbreaking discoveries about human health and physiology. In fact, units within AHS have been responsible for numerous innovations and improvements in individual, family, and community health, speech and hearing science, and overall quality of life.

Health and Kinesiology (HK)

That was then

T.K. Cureton

Dubbed the “Father of Physical Fitness,” Thomas Cureton developed methods to test motor and cardiovascular fitness in his physical fitness research laboratory, one of the first in the nation. Although he measured fitness and performance in many elite athletes, his focus was on bringing the benefits of everyday fitness to people who did not consider themselves athletes. He worked to bring his message to both adults and children, and offered physical fitness camps for children in the summer.

Health education professor Dr. William Creswell played a critical role in the development of comprehensive health education programs in K-12 schools. His efforts led to the nationwide research and curriculum development project, the School Health Education Study. In the early 1960s, he co-authored a national curriculum for K-12 health education that advanced health as the quality of life resulting from the dynamic interactions among an individual’s physical well-being, mental and emotional reactions, and social environment.

This is now

Today, scholars in kinesiology and community health investigate the effects of exercise on immune function, cognition, and co-morbidities associated with chronic kidney disease; the neuroscience of dance in health and disability; motor control in individuals with multiple sclerosis; molecular features that protect muscles against injury; the relationship between nutrition and exercise performance; the impact of disability and chronic health conditions on career development and performance; neighborhood influences on health; health and aging; and cancer epidemiology. The department name was changed from Kinesiology and Community Health to Health and Kinesiology in August 2024.

Recreation, Sport and Tourism

That was then

The first undergraduate course in recreation was offered in 1937, with a graduate course following in 1939. The recreation curriculum did not achieve departmental status until 1957. Charles K. Brightbill was the first head of the Department of Recreation and Municipal Park Administration, followed by Allen V. Sapora.

Dr. Charles Brightbill

That the University of Illinois was among the first to offer degrees in recreation can be attributed to their leadership. Drs. Brightbill and Sapora played key roles in the local, state, national and international park and recreation movements. Dr. Brightbill was a champion of the concept of professional and lay cooperation in the recreation field and contributed greatly to developing the principles that helped bring about the formation of the National Recreation and Park Association. Dr. Sapora was one of the first scholars to integrate research within recreation education, and a founding member of the Academy of Leisure Studies.

This is now

Over the years, scholars have studied how the businesses of recreation, tourism, and sport work together within the larger leisure industry to enhance the quality of life of individuals, families, communities, states, and nations. Now known as the Department of Recreation, Sport and Tourism, undergraduate and graduate students study the industry with renowned scholars who investigate the socio-political and cultural impacts of recreation, sport, and tourism; the role of leisure and play in improving health and well-being and supporting individual and community development; connections between physically active leisure and body image; and recreation and aging.

Speech and Hearing Science

That was then

Dr. Severina Nelson works with a child in the Speech Lab.

Two individuals made profound contributions to the well-deserved reputation for excellence that the Department of Speech and Hearing Science holds today. Dr. Severina Nelson initiated the clinical practice of speech therapy in a janitor’s mop closet in 1938, working with a student experiencing articulation problems. Two years later, she had earned the title of director of the speech clinic, an office and a $2,000 grant to continue her clinical work. A great believer in early intervention, Dr. Nelson started a training program for speech therapists that consisted of four years of undergraduate training and a fifth year of graduate study.

In 1948, Dr. Grant Fairbanks joined the University of Illinois as the director of the newly established Speech Research Laboratory. His laboratory became renowned for technical research in speech and hearing. Under his guidance, students earned the first doctoral degrees in speech and hearing science bestowed by the University of Illinois and went on to have significant impact upon the field. Dr. Fairbanks also expanded the University’s influence in speech and hearing science by serving as the editor of the Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, which was at the time the only scholarly journal of the American Speech and Hearing Association.

This is now

Today, scholars in the Department of Speech and Hearing Science continue to explore ways to improve the early diagnosis and treatment of communication disorders. That work has been expanded to include investigations of biological, cultural, and age-related differences in communication practices. Research also addresses brain anatomy and physiology to better understand the neural and sensory bases of speech, hearing, and language, both normal and disordered. Our scholars also focus on treatment, conducting research related to the neurology and treatment of tinnitus, the role of assistive technology in treating communication disorders, and the improvement of hearing devices such as cochlear implants.

Throughout its history, the College of Applied Health Sciences has been proud to add the accomplishments of its research faculty to the international reputation enjoyed by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. As we look forward to the future, we are excited by the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead and pledge to continue our efforts toward improving the lives of individuals, families, and communities through education, research, and engagement.

Editor’s note:

To reach Marketing and Communications, message marcom@ahs.illinois.edu

College of Applied Health Sciences
110 Huff Hall
1206 South 4th Street
Champaign, IL 61820
(217) 333-2131