SLHS JEDAI Updates Fall 2022

Peggy Nelson is again helping the Acoustical Society of America to coordinate the Summer Undergraduate Research or Internship Experience in Acoustics. It is a 12-week PAID summer undergraduate research or industry internship program for minoritized undergraduate students from around the country.

Evelyn Davies-Venn and Peggy Nelson are a part of the inter-agency "Dialogues" group, working with other auditory societies to take bolder sustained actions to challenge ongoing racism in the professions. The group has three principles:

The professions overwhelmingly lack diversity and do not represent the larger population.

Health disparities and healthcare access disparities persist.

The lack of diversity and inclusion in research studies leaves the clinical science of hearing health biased and it is unethical to apply the evidence to clinical practice when underrepresented groups are not included in clinical research studies.

They are working to have workshops at several upcoming conferences to bring these imperatives to light.

At the November 2022 ASHA convention, recent SLP-MA graduates Liliana Williams and Kerry Ebert presented a poster on perceptions of systemic racism and White privilege among graduate students in SLP and AUD programs. This presentation includes results from Liliana's thesis project, which surveyed students nationwide regarding racism in the professions. Her poster presentation on this topic at the 2022 MNSHA convention was awarded "Best Research Poster".

Clinical Supervisor in Speech-Language-Pathology Marilyn Fairchild is serving as a member of the ASHA Multicultural Issues Board (MIB). As a member of this board, she has worked on the following subcommittees this year:

• Dismantling Ableism in CSD
• Early Professionals Recruitment
• ASHA Multicultural Grant Review
• Discrimination in CSD
• MIB response to ASHA's call for feedback on the Code of Ethics revision

Another initiative this year has been the Gender Expansive Voice and Communication Group. Quoting Marilyn, “We created this group because we wanted to create a space where folx could:

• Learn about components of voice and communication and how they relate to gender
• Explore vocal change techniques
• Build community with others seeking gender-affirming voice services.