HAMMOND – The National Student Speech Language Hearing Association has awarded the NSSLHA chapter at Southeastern Louisiana University with 2021 Gold Chapter Honors.
National NSSLHA Chapter Honors are awarded to affiliated chapters that demonstrate an outstanding effort to support the organization’s national mission to inspire, empower, and support students in communication sciences and disorders programs, said retired Professor of Southeastern’s Communication and Sciences Disorders program and Chapter Advisor Lillian Stiegler.
“The Communication Sciences and Disorders program offers an undergraduate curriculum leading to the degree of Bachelor of Science,” said Stiegler, a resident of Covington. “The four-year curriculum prepares students to serve individuals with communication disorders. Clinical practica are required.”
The program also offers curriculum and external clinical practica leading to a Master of Science degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders, added Stiegler, a specialist in the field of autism spectrum disorders.
Graduate student Mary Grace Kelley of Slidell nominated Stiegler for the Chapter Advisor Honors Award, which she received for the first time this year.
“Dr. Stiegler has served as our NSSLHA Chapter Advisor for 25 years—always emphasizing the importance of advocacy, voting, philanthropy, and service. She has a visible and contagious love for speech-language pathology, which spreads like wildfire through her students and chapter members,” said Kelley.
Kelley explained that Stiegler motivated her students to overcome obstacles created by COVID-19 and encouraged them to launch a mentorship program. Their efforts helped build
relationships within the CSD program, as well as connect the students virtually with audiologists and speech language pathologists across the world.
“With Dr. Stiegler’s leadership, our chapter has received National NSSLHA Chapter Honors award multiple times, including Chapter of the Year in 2004, and the Award of Excellence twice,” Kelley said. “Since Dr. Stiegler has retired from Southeastern, we honor her efforts and achievements, and we truly believe she deserves this award.”