Greetings ANCDS members! 

As I assume the Presidency of ANCDS, I am grateful for the hard work of my predecessor, Julie Wambaugh.  Among her many accomplishments was continuing and expanding the legacy of Richard Peach in ensuring that our finances are in sound condition. 

Arnold E. Aronson, Ph.D., an early and strongly supportive member of ANCDS, died on November 1, 2018, at age 90.  He received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Speech Pathology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and then became a faculty member there.  In 1962, he joined the Mayo Clinic where he worked until his retirement in 1998.  He was a Professor in the Mayo Medical School and served as the Head of the Section of Speech Pathology in the Department of Neurology from 1979 until 1992. 

As we begin our new year, I want to express my heartfelt gratitude for the opportunity to have served as president of ANCDS.  It has been my honor to work on behalf of our organization and my pleasure to serve along with our many volunteers.

Congratulations and welcome to our newest group of ANCDS student fellows!  Thank you to the mentors who volunteered to support these students at our Annual Meeting and beyond.  And special thanks to the membership committee for organizing a wonderful program.

Natalie (2nd from right), with (from left) Fellow Marion Leaman, Dr. Jacqueline Lores-Gore,
and Dr. Brooke Hallowell, at the Fellow-Mentor Breakfast

Alyssa with her conference mentor, Dr. Carole Roth, at the Fellow-Mentor Breakfast

Madeline Wollersheim
Speech Language Pathology, Master's Student at University of Arizona

Anya (right), with her conference mentor, Dr. Jackie Stark, at the Fellow-Mentor Breakfast

Megan Schliep, MA, CCC-SLP, MPH
Rehabilitation Sciences, 3rd Year Doctoral Student at MGH Institute of Health Professions

Dr. Ellyn Riley (center), with her mentee Haley Dresang (left) and fellow Alyssa Rickels at the Fellow-Mentor Breakfast

Welcome to the summer ANCDS newsletter.  I hope that you've had an enjoyable summer and have been able to take advantage of our podcasts, webinars (live and on-demand), and annual meeting recordings.  As you are planning your fall and winter schedules, be sure to look for upcoming webinars and mark your calendars for the ANCDS Scientific Meeting in Boston on November 14th.

In each newsletter, we will feature an ANCDS member.  This quarter we're talking with Esther Kim, PhD, CCC-SLP, an Associate Professor and Director of the Aphasia Research Lab at the University of Alberta.  Esther's areas of expertise include cognitive mechanisms underlying language processing in aphasia and healthy aging; developing treatment approaches for aphasia and related neurogenic communication disorders.

In each newsletter, we will feature an ANCDS member.  This quarter we're talking with Catherine Wiseman-Hakes, PhD, a Clinician Researcher and Lecturer at the University of Toronto.  Catherine's areas of expertise include cognitive rehabilitation neuroscience, basic science to clinical applications, cognitive-communication disorders, the role of sleep in neuroplasticity, cognition and neuro-recovery.  Her clinical and research interests include cognitive-communication disorders in vulnerable populations (youth and adults in the criminal justice system, women survivors of intimate partner violence); and cognitive-communication and return to learn for students with mTBI/concussion and persistent symptoms.

In each newsletter, we will feature an ANCDS member.  This quarter we're talking with Kelly Knollman-Porter, PhD, CCC-SLP, an Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Speech Pathology & Audiology and Director of the Concussion Management Program at Miami University.

We are very fortunate that Sarah Wallace, Ph.D., has joined the ANCDS Communications Committee and is now co-editor of the ANCDS Newsletter.  Many of you know Sarah because she is your colleague, mentor, committee member, or running partner.  Sarah is an Associate Professor and Program Director for the Adult Language and Cognition clinic in the Speech-Language Pathology Department at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  Dr. Wallace also directs the Communication and Cognition Lab at Duquesne.  She has published extensively in the areas of multi modal communication and aphasia along with other publications in the area of neurogenic communication disorders.

Ryan S. Husak, MS, CCC-SLP
Doctoral Candidate in Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Kentucky

Jenni Shafer, MS
Doctoral student in the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Kristen Ackley, B.A., B.S.
Master’s Student at Pennsylvania State University

Welcome to the first ANCDS newsletter of 2018. It is my privilege to be serving as president this year and I am looking forward to helping advance the important work of our organization. I’d like to extend my gratitude to our Past-President, Richard Peach, for his invaluable efforts on our behalf last year. Thanks to his leadership, our operations have been substantially improved.