Nancy Alarcon

By means of this memo, I am pleased to enthusiastically support the nomination of Senior Lecturer Nancy Alarcon for the University of Washington David Thorud Leadership Award. Ms. Alarcon joined our faculty in 1988 and was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1999 and appointed as Clinic Director of the University of Washington Speech and Hearing Clinic that same year.

Ms. Alarcon has shown herself to be an outstanding leader as a faculty member of this department as well as in her role as the director of our Clinic. Her leadership is most clearly represented in her extensive and exemplary service to the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences and the profession of speech-language pathology and audiology. This leadership in service has been shown clearly in the Department as Clinic Director as well as at the national and state levels.

In 1999, Ms. Alarcon was appointed Clinic Director of the University of Washington Speech and Hearing Clinic. She took to this leadership position with confidence and enthusiasm. This clinic serves as a research and teaching laboratory for the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences. This clinic serves over 4000 patients each year across the life span. Ms. Alarcon, as clinic director, is responsible for all aspects of the clinic operation from policies and procedures to the integration of research, teaching and clinical service for faculty and students. This position in the Department carries enormous responsibility and is at the heart of our clinical education program in Speech and Hearing Sciences. In this role, Ms. Alarcon is also supervisor of the supervisors in that she oversees and mentors all lecturers and clinical instructors who provide clinical service and supervise in the clinical education of our students. An attached letter from those clinical instructors testifies to her wonderful and strong leadership skills. She is an outstanding mentor for these faculty members in terms of their professional growth as educators and professional speech pathologists and audiologists.

Over the past 20 years, Ms. Alarcon has shown leadership outside the walls of the Department and the UW and has made a significant impact on the profession at the national and state levels. She is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the American Speech Language Hearing Association (ASHA). ASHA is the professional organization for 150,000 audiologists, speech-language pathologists, and speech language and hearing scientists. This major leadership position is at the highest level of our profession and her role in ASHA provided significant national prestige and political influence to the Department and, by extension, to the University of Washington. Prior to her membership on the Board of Directors, she served on numerous influential national committees within ASHA including a 10-year role as Legislative Counselor, Chair of the Committee on Honors, and ASHA Vice President for Quality of Service in Speech Language Pathology. Also at the national level, Ms. Alarcon has played an active role in the Council of Academic Programs in Communication Sciences and Disorders.

Ms. Alarcon’s activities at the state level have been extensive as well. She served as the President of the Washington Speech Language Hearing Association (WSLHA) and was a member of their Board of Directors. She has served on, and chaired, nearly all committees and advisory boards within this large, statewide organization.

Ms. Alarcon has been an exemplary departmental leader. In addition to her significant role as Clinic Director, she has served on, and chaired, nearly all department committees including long standing membership on the Department’s Executive Committee as well as heading the clinic coordinating committee. She also is the Departmental lead in our Advancement efforts and has that charismatic knack for connecting with students, alums and the public at large.

In another testament to her leadership, Ms. Alarcon has received several significant awards and honors over her career. She was made Fellow of the American Speech Language Hearing Association in 2005. She received the Honors of the Association from the Washington Speech and Hearing Association in 2002. She received the prestigious Service Award from the Council of Academic Programs in Communication Sciences and Disorders in 2007.

Her excellence leading and directing the clinical service at the University of Washington Speech and Hearing Clinic also has been honored by significant gifts to the University of Washington.

Between 1995 and 2000, Dr. John and Mrs. Helen Schilling gifted a total of $25000 in recognition of Ms. Alarcon’s excellence in teaching and service, and to provide support for development and continuation of clinical research. This gift helped establish the “Neurogenic Communication Disorders” program at the University of Washington Speech and Hearing Clinic. Further, in 1997, the Hill Family Foundation gifted $10,000 to support the application of technology in assisting individuals with communication disorders and directed to the “Neurogenic Communication Disorders” program in recognition of Ms. Alarcon’s work in this area.

I can think of no one more qualified or more deserving of this honor than Nancy Alarcon, Senior Lecturer, Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences.