COMMUNICATION DISORDERS - Key Persons

Barry Guitar, Ph.D., CCC/SLP is a world-renowned expert in stuttering treatment and research. He is a Professor Emeritus of communication sciences at the University of Vermont where he taught and supervised clinical work in stuttering, researched stuttering treatments and conducted support groups for people who stutter , and author of the textbook, Stuttering: An Integrated Approach to Its Nature and Treatment. In 1995 he was named "Vermont Professor of the Year," the highest honor given in each state by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. E. Charles Healey, Ph.D. is a Professor-Emeritus at the University of Nebraska for the past 30 years. During his career, he has received a University Distinguished Teaching Award, the honors of the Nebraska Speech-Language-Hearing Association, and a distinguished alumni award from the University of Kentucky. He also is an ASHA Fellow and a Board Certified Specialists in Fluency and Fluency Disorders. Charlie has published many journal articles and book chapters concerning adults and children with fluency disorders. He also has presented numerous workshops and seminars on the diagnosis and treatment of stuttering in school-age children who stutter.

Dennis Drayna, Ph.D., is Scientist Emeritus (Laboratory of Communication Disorders and. Section on Genetics of Communication Disorders) at the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, at the National Institutes of Health. He received his Bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin and his Ph.D. from Harvard University, and he served a postdoctoral fellowship at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of Utah. His research focused on the genetics of human communication disorders, including stuttering.

Job Titles:

• Member of the National Stuttering Association

IMPORTANT WARNING: The ORIGINAL Stuttering Home Page which began as a "gopher site" in 1994 is actually located at Minnesota State University, Mankato, at https://www.mnsu.edu/comdis/kuster/stutter.html which is pointed to by http://www.stutteringhomepage.com. The ".com" is a "domain name." I also own the .net .org and .info "domain names." Any other domain name after http://www.stutteringhomepage is NOT the original Stuttering Home Page and may contain bad information.

Judith Kuster M.S. Speech-language pathology, M.S. Counseling, CCC/SLP is an emeritus professor in the Department of Speech, Language and Rehabilitation Services at Minnesota State University, Mankato. She is an ASHA Fellow and Board Certified Specialist in Fluency and Fluency Disorders (retired). Kuster is the creator of The Stuttering Home Page. Her work on the internet has been recognized by the ASHF's DiCarlo Award (1996), International Fluency Association's Distinguished Contributor Award (2003), International Stuttering Association's Distinguished Service Award (2007), ASHA's Outstanding Service Award (2008), and the Hall of Fame award from the National Stuttering Association (2009).

Job Titles:

• Associate Professor in the Department of Speech

Kenneth Logan, Ph.D., CCC/SLP is an associate professor in the Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences at the University of Florida. His research has examined issues related to the effects of linguistic factors on speech fluency, approaches to assessing stuttering-related behaviors, and factors that affect listeners' attitudes toward and perceptions of people who stutter. Dr. Logan has presented many papers and authored a number of articles that deal with the nature and treatment of stuttering. H

Job Titles:

• Emeritus Professor at West Virginia University

Kenneth St. Louis, Ph.D, Emeritus professor at West Virginia University, has focused his entire career on fluency disorders with the primary goal of helping people who stutter. His work setting has been in higher education, where he has supervised graduate students doing therapy with stuttering and cluttering, taught courses in fluency disorders, and carried out research in stuttering and cluttering. St. Louis is a Board Certified Specialist and Mentor in Fluency Disorders and author of Living With Stuttering: Stories, Resources, Basics, and Hope. He was awarded the first Deso Weiss Award for Excellence in Cluttering, which recognizes the international contribution of an individual to understanding about cluttering. .

Kristin A. Chmela, M.A. CCC-SLP is a Board Recognized Specialist and Mentor-Fluency Disorders and is an adjunct instructor at Northwestern University. She was a school clinician for five years prior to opening a private practice and consulting firm specializing in working with children who stutter. Kristin is a frequent national and international presenter on stuttering and stuttering therapy and is co-author of The School Age Child Who Stutters: Working Effectively with Attitudes and Emotions

Larry Molt, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor at Auburn University where he has served as chair of the Department of Communication Disorders and the director of the Neuroprocesses Research Laboratory. He holds a dual masters degree in speech-language pathology and audiology from the University of South Florida and Ph.D. in speech and hearing science from the University of Tennessee. Larry is an ASHA Board Certified Specialists in Fluency and Fluency Disorders. Larry was named 2003 Speech-Language Pathologist of the Year by the National Stuttering Association. His current research involves EEG topographic mapping of brain activity in a variety of speech, language and auditory disorders, with a prominent interest in stuttering.

Job Titles:

• Professor in the Department of Hearing and Speech

Nan Bernstein Ratner, Ed.D., CCC-SLP, is Professor in the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park. She is a Fellow and Honors recipient of the American Speech, Language and Hearing Association (ASHA). In 2014, she was made a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).She holds degrees in Child Development, Speech-Language Pathology and Applied Psycholinguistics and the author of more numerous articles and chapters addressing stuttering and language acquisition in children. Dr. Ratner is an ASHA Fellow, a Board Certified Specialist for Fluency and Child Language, and recipient of the 2006 IFA Distinguished Researcher Award.

Nathan E. Lavid,, MD, DFAPA is a clinical and forensic psychiatrist who serves children, adolescents, and adults in the Long Beach, California area. He has presented at professional conferences on stuttering and authored a book on stuttering, Lavid N. 2003. Understanding Stuttering. University Press of Mississippi, Jackson.

Shelley B. Brundage Ph.D, CCC/SLP, Fellow-ASHA, and a Board Certified Specialist in Fluency and Fluency Disorders, is a full professor in the Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences department at George Washington University where she teaches courses on stuttering, research methods, and neurogenic communication disorders. Her research expertise is in the areas of fluency development, stuttering, and the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). .

Job Titles:

• Assistant Professor at the University of New Hampshire

Sheryl R. Gottwald, Ph.D., CCC/SLP, is an Assistant Professor at the University of New Hampshire where she teaches the graduate course in fluency and directs the fluency clinical programs. Dr. Gottwald is a Board Certified Specialists in Fluency and Fluency Disorders and Mentor. She has lectured nationally and internationally on the topic of fluency disorders, and has published numerous articles and book chapters on this topic.