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October 4, 2006

ULM’s Communicative Disorders and Scottish Rite: a successful collaboration

Since 1998, ULM’s department of communicative disorders has worked with the Monroe Scottish Rite Bodies and the Louisiana Scottish Rite Foundation. Serving children with communication disorders is one of the national philanthropies of the organization and to date, there are more than 130 clinical sites nationally, five of which are in Louisiana.

ULM faculty and graduate students from the department of communicative disorders provide speech and language therapy services to children from throughout the region at the Admiral E. A. Barham Speech and Hearing Clinic in Monroe on University Avenue, with all clinic fees paid by Scottish Rite. In addition, the Louisiana Scottish Rite Foundation provides scholarships for the ULM graduate students selected to train in this setting.

Beryl Franklin, retired ULM Professor Emeritus and Scottish Rite member, serves as clinic administrator, and Robert Joyner, Monroe Scottish Rite General Secretary, oversees the clinical facilities of the Barham Clinic, housed within the Monroe Scottish Rite Temple. Norma Johnson, director of Clinical Services for the department of communicative disorders and Judy Fellows, department head, manage all aspects of the clinical program at Scottish Rite.

The members of the Monroe Scottish Rite also support ULM and the Communicative Disorders Program in a variety of other endeavors. Last spring, when the department of communicative disorders held its annual continuing education conference for speech-language pathologists from throughout the state, the luncheon was provided at the Scottish Rite facility, with Scottish Rite members serving as chefs and hosts. The local members also sponsor an annual horse show to raise funds that support the speech therapy program at Scottish Rite.

Johnson recently represented ULM at the National Rite Care Conference in Dallas. The conference provided networking and professional development opportunities for speech-language professionals and Scottish Rite administrators from throughout North America as they collaborate to provide quality services to children speech and/or language deficits.

For more information, call the Communicative Disorders Department at 342-1395.

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