Dr. Ruth H. Stonestreet Appointed to National Speech, Language,Hearing Board

VALDOSTA -- Valdosta State University’s Dr. Ruth H. Stonestreet recently returned from a four-day meeting at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) national office in Washington, D.C. The Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders professor serves the association as a member of its Financial Planning Board.

Stonestreet was appointed to a three-year term on the ASHA’s Financial Planning Board on Jan. 1, 2011. Her duties include reviewing the association’s annual budget and the relationship between its Strategic Pathway and its annual budgetary allocations; reviewing the association’s financial status and structure by studying alternate proposals of fiscal management; and making recommendations to the association’s Board of Directors concerning policies, programs and activities consistent with the fiscal responsibilities of the association.

“Having served in leadership roles in other organizations, both civic and professional, was a pleasure, but … it was especially meaningful and an honor to be appointed to this 10-member board from a membership in the organization of 145,000 members,” said Stonestreet, who was named an ASHA fellow in 2008.

Stonestreet joined the ASHA in 1971, the same year she earned her master’s degree in speech pathology from Mississippi University for Women. She went on to earn a doctorate degree in communication disorders from Southern Illinois University in 1986.

After working in Mississippi, Kentucky and Michigan, Stonestreet joined the VSU family in 1995. She teaches both undergraduate and graduate students, supervises graduate student clinicians, conducts research, and more. She also provides services in the area of speech-language pathology, focusing on children 12 years of age and younger with various communication disorders. She has been published more than a dozen times and has made hundreds of presentations on the local, state, regional, and national level. She has written and secured grant funds for various special programs and professional development opportunities and is active in the Valdosta-Lowndes County community as a member of the Colonel Ebenezer Folsom Chapter of Daughters of the American Revolution, the Valdosta Civitan Club, and First Presbyterian Church.

Formed in 1925, the American-Speech-Language-Hearing Association is the professional, scientific, and credentialing association for speech-language pathologists, audiologists, and speech, language, and hearing scientists in the United States and internationally. It advocates on behalf of persons with communication and related disorders, advances communication science, and promotes effective human communication. It believes that effective communication is a human right that should be accessible and achievable for all.

For more information, contact Ruth H. Stonestreet at (229) 219-1313 or rstonest@valdostsa.edu or visit the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association website at www.asha.org.