ATHENS, Ohio -- The Ohio University Regional Conference on Hearing, Speech and Language Sciences, featuring speakers of international renown in the field, is expected to draw more than 350 participants to the university's Grover Center on May 17 and 18. Among the presenters are several outstanding alumni of the Ohio University School of Hearing, Speech and Language program.
John Locke, Ph.D., editor for Applied Psycholinguistics and a member of the editorial board for Journal for Child Language, will present a session on the biology of eavesdropping: intimate experience and social control. Locke, who is a professor for the Department of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology at New York University, has made a large contribution to the knowledge of speech-language pathology, cognitive psychology and linguistics through his scholarly work. After completing his master's degree and doctorate at Ohio University in 1968, Locke completed postdoctoral fellowships at Yale University and Oxford University. He was recently a Kennedy Visiting Lecturer at Ohio University.
Presenter Linda Petrosino, Ph.D., is the president of the Ohio Speech-Language-Hearing Association and a 1983 alumna of the Ohio University program. She recently was appointed dean of the Bowling Green State University College of Health and Human Services. In addition to serving on several professional committees and holding offices in both state and national professional organizations, in 2001 she was awarded the Honors of the Ohio Speech-Language-Hearing Association, an award recognizing distinguished contribution to the field of speech and hearing. Petrosino's presentation is titled "Student dreams to professional realities."
Michael A. Grary, Ph.D., has been awarded numerous grants and contracts, the latest being a $2.5 million contract with Shands Health Care Systems. This 1978 alumnus of the program, currently the director of the Florida Dysphagia Institute, a type III center at the University of Florida Health Science Center, has concentrated research in the areas of communication disorders and dysphagia.
Other presenters include the president of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Nancy Creaghead, Charles E. Speaks, Jean Blosser, Thomas Powers, David Daley, Jeffery L. Danhauer, Marisue Pickerington, Jon K. Shallop and G. Albyn Davis.
The conference provides a wide range of professional topics in audiology, speech-language pathology and communication disorders through mini-seminars, short courses, professional seminars and poster sessions and includes an opportunity to earn continuing education units. It was planned by a group of Ohio University alumni, in coordination with the School of Hearing, Speech and Language Sciences in the College of Health and Human Services. During the Saturday evening banquet, awards will be presented in the areas of history, science, learning and service.
The school was established at Ohio University in 1937 and has been recognized as providing one of the best undergraduate and graduate academic programs in hearing-speech-language sciences in the nation. The hearing-speech-language clinic, now located in Grover Center as part of Ohio University Therapy Associates, has been providing experiential opportunities for students and services to southeastern Ohio for more than 60 years.
