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Communication Disorders Program Newsletter
January 2016
A Message From Our Program Director
Greetings to NMSU CD Program Friends,
It is a New YEAR and our NMSU CD department wishes each and every one of you a peaceful
and productive 2016. Our faculty continues to
thrive and produce important research and teaching methods, our students continue to discover the depth of their abilities and skills, and our
alumni are propagating throughout the region and the country! We bid
adieu to the class of 2015 and welcomed the graduate class of 2017.
What an amazing year!
With a robust research and service agenda, our faculty publication list
is growing, as is our national presence. Dr. Srikanta Mishra was awarded
an NIH R03 Research grant, and is the first faculty member in the College of Education to be the sole primary investigator for NIH funding.
Once again a delegation of graduate students went to Peru to provide
therapy for individuals with Cleft-Lip and Palate. Dr. Salas-Provance and
Dr. Rau devoted time and talent to this endeavor, and the whole project
was supported by numerous community organizations including the
Good Samaritan Residents, and the Sertoma Club of Las Cruces .
Other achievements include that our own Dr. Rhein received a certificate of recognition by ASHA for her contribution to multicultural education, Clinic Director Ms. Tenecia Yeboah presented at the national
conference for the Council of Academic Programs in Communication
Disorders, and Dr. Lehnert-LeHoullier received specialized training in
endoscopic procedures at Vanderbilt University. The NMSU College
Clinics Hearing Aid Center opened in the Spring and Director Moumita
Choudhury has begun dispensing hearing aids.
As ever, I want to express our gratitude to our adjunct professors
and clinical educators, Friends of CD, our advisory board, the legislators
who support us, our alumni and to the Sertoma Club of Las Cruces.
Best wishes for a restful holiday and a peaceful 2016.
-Dr. Spencer
Table of Contents
NMSU and NMSHA
2015 Graduation
2
3-5
Summer 2015
6
Class of 2017
7
Student & Faculty Present
at NMSHA and ASHA
8-9
Friends of CD
10
SERTOMA
11
NSSLHA
12
Gratitude-Advisory board,
Nsslha Sponsors, Faculty
13
Admin Assistants/
Adjuncts, Clinical Educators and ALUM spotlight
14
Donate and Alum Contact
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NMSU CD Visits the Legislature
NMSU Students Visit the Legislature in Sana Fe and attend NMSHA Convention in Albuquerque
On February 20th, Dr. Amelia Rau and four NMSU students including Taylor Garrison, Kara Hicks, Scheryia Romero and
The’ Nguyen represented NMSU at the New Mexico Speech-Language Hearing Association (NMSHA) Day at the Legislature. This experience gives students to meet with our statewide organization, learn about advocacy for the profession, and to
inform the public about how Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists promote healthy communication for our residents. In May the NMSHA board met here at NMSU, and in October several of our students went to the NMSHA conference in Albuquerque.
Undergraduate Senior Zöe Dinger Receives ASHA Award and ASPIRE
Award from University of Illinois If you think Zöe looks happy and Dr. Mishra looks proud, you are
correct! ASHA PROJENY award is to encourage the development of young scientists in communication sciences and disorders,
and to highlight undergraduate research efforts. PROGENY pairs faculty researchers with undergraduate students who are first
authors on poster presentations at the annual ASHA Convention. PROGENY
highlights and supports the work of these undergraduates by providing them
with an opportunity to talk with experienced scientists about their research, and
about pursuing an academic-research career. Established scientists visit each student's poster during its regularly scheduled poster presentation session. Each discusses
their poster with the faculty researcher (e.g., describe the experimental question, the dependent and independent variables, implications of the findings and future research directions). The scientist selected to talk with the student is asked to engage in discussions
about the student's research project and to provide information about academic and research career options in the discipline. Scientists are encouraged to also invite a PhD student in his or her lab to also visit the undergraduate student's poster. The interaction between these young scientists and PhD students can help to provide a model of the progression one undergoes while pursuing a research career. The list of all undergraduate
participants in the PROGENY program is disseminated widely to encourage other Convention attendees to visit the posters and talk with these talented undergraduates.
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2015 Graduation
Graduation 2015 was filled with many memories of smiles, achievements and
happy send-offs. Ms. Scheryiah Romero, (right upper photo) was awarded the
Outstanding Senior Award for the College of Education and Victoria Garcia
(lower photo) received the Dean’s Academic Excellence award. These two
were amazing Seniors whom we are proud to have as representatives of an outstanding Undergraduate class of 2015.
Our 2015 Graduate class left us with an impressive pedigree of accomplishments. The Outstanding Graduate student award went to Nell Baird of Farmington, NM, the Steve and Judy Farmer Outstanding Clinician Award went to
The’ Nguyen of Bellingham, WA, and the Outstanding Scholars were Selina
Salazar of Las Cruces, NM and Samantha Swahlen, of El Paso Texas.
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GRADUATION DAY MEMORIES
4
2015 MAGrads
Susana Acosta
Alexi Almodovar
Ingrid Arias
Nell Baird
Natalie Bencomo
Jessica Bozzell
Jessica Cano
Lendsay Davenport
Marysa De Blassie
Devonne Estrada
Zully Garcia
Aurora Hernandez-Duran
Guille Hijar Alvidrez
Citlalic Jeffers Pena
Hali Marte
Megana McNutt
Christina Newmann
The’ Nguyen
Jessica Nunn
Sara Reeser
Andra Riley
Lily Rockwell
Amelia Rutherford
Selina Salazar
Samantha Swahlen
2016 Seniors on CAPSTONE Presentation Day
2016 Senior class completes Capstone Projects in Inaugural Event
On December 10, 2015 in Garcia Hall one could
hear a plethora of voices filled with excitement and engagement as 33 seniors and two leveling students met
with CD faculty to discuss their culminating CAPSTONE projects. The topics were diverse, creative
and intriguing ranging from titles such as Late Talkers:
The What and Why in Therapy by Emma Lindsey to
Dysphagia after Vocal Fold Damage Cause by Intubation by Anne Marie Sullivan. If those topics were not
your cup of tea, you might have enjoyed talking with
Daisy López or with Alejandra Moreno who had projects that investigated issues associated with voice in
individuals who are transgender. The Capstone experience debuted and piloted this fall through support
from the NMSU teaching Academy Advisory Board
and office of Assessment “Writing to Learn” Mini
Grant Program that was awarded to Dr. Amelia Rau.
Thanks to Dr. Rau’s diligence, tutoring and support
form her graduate assistant Keelin Hindi Hubbard, the
program was an amazing success and showcased the
talents of our 2016senior class.
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2015 B.A. Grads
Berenice Barraza
Haydee Barron
Kayla Barrow
Kailie Bloomfield
Hannah Bocox
Cassandra Carrasco
Sonia Cheney
Shelbie Claycomb
Lauren DeVoe
Mona Duran
Ana Esparza
Maegan Estrada
Ileana Evans
Elena Fichera
Leanna Gallardo
Victoria Garcia
Taylor Garrison
Jannette Gonzalez
Ariana Hansen
Trevor Harris
Kara Hicks
Kylee Kinnamon
Jessica Leuenberger
Gabrielle Martinez
Melinda Medina
Yuridia Mendoza
Summer on (and off) Campus
This summer was the second year we offered CAMP PALS, which is a social skills training program
for students with Autism. We offer gratitude to Amanda Vescovo and to Tenecia Yeboah who wrote a
grant proposal to the Hearts for Autism Fund to help run this camp. This year the camp expanded to
include a social skills piece that integrated lessons from a drama student, Natalie Cannon, guided by
Professor Larissa Lurry. Natalie is also a Special Education major .
Thanks to a generous donation by the
Las Cruces Sertoma Club to support
clinical educators, the summer of 2015
marked the Seventh season of READERS THEATRE Camp. Directed by
Ms. Tenecia Yeboah, two stories came to
life. Pajama Time, by Sandra Boynton,
and If you Give a Mouse a Cookie by Numeroff and Bond. Ten graduate clinician and three clinical educators completed the production with the children.
The children improved literacy and
speech presentation skills, and the graduate students gained valuable clinical experience. Sertoma Club Serves!
Grad Students Travel to PERU
This summer 7 graduate student and 2 faculty members, Dr. Salas-Provance and Dr.
Rau served over 150 individuals. It was an
amazing experience for our students and
the service extended was phenomenal.
Click the link on the right to see a video
made by students!
https://youtu.be/
HTvbrFxFdtE
Once more, many
local individuals
and programs made
this trip possible,
including the Las
Cruces Sertoma
Club, Good Sam’s,
and all who contributed to the GoFundMe account.
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Welcome Class of 2017
7
Students and Faculty Present at ASHA
The ASHA convention this year was in Denver, Colorado
and once more, NMSU’s presence was seen and heard by all!
Marissa Perez, Leslie Guzman, Alberto Olguin, Allison Metey
and Rachel Hoehle present a poster about their Peru Project.
Below left, Dr. Mishra, Zoe Dinger Moumita Choudhury present research on social networking in the hearing aid community and below right, Teal Radford presents her thesis work
on pitch accent in CI users. Below left has Drs. Spencer,
Lehnert-Lehoullier and Briana Radosevich presenting Dr.
Lehnert-Lehoullier’s work on prosody in CI users. Bottom
photos left-- graduate students getting an ASHA experience
and right, has undergraduates soaking up ASHA.
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Department ACCOLADES
A year of awards and honors! Below- Dr.
Rhein receives a certificate of recognition
from ASHA for Special Contribution to Multicultural Affairs. The Award was presented in a
Gala-Ceremony during the ASHA convention
in Denver Colorado. Right she is surrounded
by her students celebrating her accomplishment.
Dr. Srikanta Mishra becomes one of the first
at NMSU to receive NIH R3 Grant award.
His research investigates the Medial Olivocochlear Reflex in children. This system
helps us detect a signal in noise. Dr. Mishra’s
work is funded for three years. Congratulations Dr. Mishra for breaking new ground at
NMSU and for your amazing accomplishment
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The NMSU CD department would
like to thank Abel Covarubious,
Danny Palma and the folks at Aprendamos and Direct Therapy Service
for their generous donation of
$10,000. These monies
help our students in
many ways, supporting
the clinic. This year
a portion of the
funds purchased a sub
scription for SimuCase
for each incoming
graduate student.
SimuCase is an in
interactive technology
that helps train our
students to assess, diag nose and make recommendations from a library
of virtual patients.
Friends of CD
This year we celebrated Friends of our Communication Disorders Department at the Danny Villanueva 3rd Floor
Bistro at the Fulton Athletic Center. We have been extremely fortunate as a department to have so many supporters, and this year we honored all 82 of these supporters since 2005 by designating them official “Friends of the
NMSU Communication Disorders Program.” This year our named friends included: Champion One Group,
Good Sam Society, Dr. Jennifer Villa, Amanda Vescovo, and the Resound Hearing Aid Corporation. We
honored Dr. Stephen Farmer and Dr. Connie Stout for their contribution to the department. It was a beautiful
fall evening with an auction of the Quilt Construction sculpture donated by John Garret.
Our beautiful graduate students serve the party!
Dr. Stout addresses the crowd
Ms. Yeboah Presents Dr. Farmer
with his Award
Gllamor Gals-Lil Grilhalva, Christine Newtson and Tony
Trujillo. Friends of CD
Lovely Professors! Drs. Lehnert-LeHoullier, Rau and Ms.
Choudhury
Sertoma Continues Support
The Las Cruces Sertoma Club always with its tremendous support of our program. The
first Friday in November, the club presented Ms.Tenecia Yeboah Director of Clinical Education a check for $10,400 This brings Sertoma’s total contribution to over $140,000!
These monies allow us to hire clinical educators during the summer session. Thank you
so very much Sertoma!
Above: Rachel Hoehle, Ms. Tenecia Yeboah and Sertoma President Charles Wagner. Below-Members of The Sertoma Club
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NSSLHA Community Service
Each year our National Student SpeechLanguage and Hearing Association chapter
amazes with the level of service they do. Just
a few of the event they were involved in included: Keep State Great, Cards for Raul,
and Volunteering at Desert Peaks Nursing
Home. They won the Homecoming Door
decorating contest, and supported student
trips to ASHA. With fundraising activities
such as bake sales, car washes, Chili’s Night,
Tee-shirt sales…you can bet this group is
busy every minute contributing to our campus and to our program. groups. All this
makes our department a vibrant and amazing
place to Discover!
Grad Students in the news—-See the story of how one of our
Grad Students (Trevor Harris) organized a charity event !
http://krwg.org/post/alzheimers-and-dementia-patients-help-contribute-local-charity
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The NMSU CD Department would
like to extend deep gratitude to our
Advisory Board Members :
Anthony Casaus
NSSLHA would like to thank the following
Lilian Grijalva
local businesses for their support!
Jane Harvey
Miguel’s Mexican Restaurant
James Hoffman
Delicia’s Mexican Restaurant
Tom Lindsay
Roberto’s Mexican Restaurant
Si Señor Mexican Restaurant
Carol Lobato
Domino’s Pizza
Stephen Lopez
Pizza Hut
Bryan Tierney
Be Young Beauty Salon
Vittal Pai
ABC Party world
Amanda Vescovo
Digital Solutions
Village Inn Restaurant
Dancers Unlimited of
NMSU
Little Caesar’s Pizza
The Healing Sanctuary
Albertsons
Bosa Doughnuts
Starbucks
Faculty and Staff of the NMSU Communication Disorders Department:
Racquel Avelar
Administrative Assistant
Anne Cobos
Adjunct Professor
Moumita Choudhury
Audiology Program Director
Heike Lehnert-Lehouillier Assistant Professor
Srikanta Mishra
Assistant Professor
Amelia Rau
Assistant Professor
Deborah Rhein
Associate Professor
Sandra Romero
Administrative Assistant
Marlene Salas-Provance Associate Professor
Carolyn Stuve
Adjunct Professor
Linda Spencer
Program Director/Assistant Professor
Alfred Valdez
Associate Professor
Robert Wood
Interim Department Chair
Tenecia Yeboah
College Assistant Professor/Clinic Director
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The spine of the NMSU CD Department —
our administrative assistants:
We love our Administrative Assistants and their dedication to our faculty, staff
and stude nts! Sandra Romero, Racquel Avelar and Kristen Andrews!
We would not survive without our CLINICAL EDUCATORS-With Sincere Gratitude to:
Adrienne Herrenbruck—Tom Lindsay—Mary Strom—Shelly Whittey—-Maribell Lozoya-Hernandez
ALUM SPOTLIGHT
WENDY (Class of 2012) and NOAH (Class of 2014) EGGEBRAATEN
Here is our Inaugural Alum Spotlight submitted from one of the
NMSU’s CD DepartmentsMost beloved Wife/Husband pair….You can
be Next...email Dr. Spencer with YOUR update
Wendy writes:
I graduated from NMSU in 2012 and have been working full time in early intervention at
Tresco TOTS ever since. Until recently, I also worked PRN at Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center in Alamogordo.
Noah graduated in 2014 and works as a bilingual (Spanish/English) SLP with Yucca Therapy Services; Noah currently provides therapy at Hatch Valley Middle School and High School in Hatch, and conducts evaluations at Hatch Valley Elementary.
He also recently began working as a PRN SLP at Mountain View Regional Medical Center in Las Cruces. Our son, Asher
Elliot Eggebraaten, was born on October 28, 2015 weighing 7 lbs, 12.6 oz and measuring 20 inches in length. We are all
doing well. Noah and I are so in love with our little guy!
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Donating to the CD program is easy.
You may send a check to:
College of Education Dean’s Office
MSC 3AC
New Mexico State University
PO Box 30001
Las Cruces, NM
Please use the memo space on your
check to indicate the account number
for the fund to which you are donating. The account number for the Edgar R. Garret Endowment is
#984155. The account number for
the Farmer Supervision Gift award
fund is #104468. The account number for the Mary Knott Graduate Student Scholarship is #984610. Make
the check out to: NMSU Foundation.
You may call (575) 646-6125 to
make a credit card donation.
Are you an ALUM?
We would love to hear from you! Email Dr. Spencer at
spencer1@nmsu.edu
Send a photo and an update as to where you are and what you
are doing. We will post these updates in our next Chile Chat!
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