JCPSLP Vol 20 No 2 July 2018

Entrepreneurship in speech-language pathology

Obituary In memory of Dr Justine Joan Sheppard Susan Balandin, Bronwyn Hemsley, Georgia Malandraki and Hilda Pressman

D r Justine Joan Sheppard, PhD, CCC-SLP, BCS-S, ASHA Fellow, friend and valued colleague to so many people working in the field of developmental disability and dysphagia, passed away at home on the morning of 31 March 2018 after a courageous struggle with breast cancer. Her death is a great loss to us all, including the many people with developmental

Writing extensively about disability, dysphagia, and oral motor skills since 1964, 1 Joan was a champion for the rights of people with developmental disability to gain access to a full and appropriate mealtime assessment that included recommendations to improve not only their respiratory and nutritional health and safety but also

their enjoyment of the meal along with inclusion and participation in the social setting of a mealtime. Highly awarded for her work, she was also one of the first to promote the use of observations for tracking symptoms of dysphagia that went beyond a focus only on oral and pharyngeal phases and extended into the positioning, equipment, assistance, and the environmental factors that can impact on mealtime safety. Joan loved teaching and even in the last six months of her life she continued to travel internationally and to teach. Joan always spoke highly of her students and colleagues and took a genuine interest in their work and progress – encouraging clinicians and researchers all over the world to

disability whose lives were improved and saved through her research, in particular the development and validation of the Dysphagia Disorder Survey, the Choking Risk Assessment, and the Pneumonia Risk Assessment. It was our privilege to know Joan Sheppard as a teacher, clinician, researcher, author, mentor, and friend over many years. Watching her work with clients and teach the people who would be working directly with them, was a beautiful thing. Specialising in working with individuals with developmental disability and dysphagia, Joan treated each individual and their family members and support workers with respect and they responded to her. She was a

Dr Justine Joan Sheppard

develop their skill, particularly those early in their careers. Her generosity, kindness, and warmth were matched by her sharpness, focus, and dedication throughout her working life, which she devoted to working with and for people with developmental disability. Joan’s work was transformative in highlighting how people with cerebral palsy or intellectual disability experience dysphagia and how it changes with age. She was a pioneer in recognising the importance of training in identifying swallowing risks and improving mealtime safety, not only for speech-language pathologists, but also for other health professionals and direct support workers. Everyone loved Joan’s workshops. She visited Australia regularly, often with her husband Ron. Her workshops were linked initially with the Centre of Developmental Disability at the University of Sydney and in the last three years with Deakin University, Victoria. She enjoyed Australia enormously and was enthusiastic about everything: the people, the work that we do here, the food, culture and the Australian Open. Over the years she trained more than 300 people, including therapists who travelled from Singapore, Hong Kong and India. For many, the experience was unforgettable. Her knowledge, warmth and respect encouraged people to grapple with new ideas and discuss their own experiences. She was unfailingly patient and interested in what workshop participants had to say so that people left enriched and with new ideas to put into practice.

strong advocate for her profession. When Hilda Pressman began treating children with AIDS in the early 1980s, Joan encouraged her to write and lecture to get the word out so that speech-language pathologists were knowledgeable and willing to assist in the care of children with AIDS. Joan’s contributions to the field and her tireless work to advance the care and management of individuals with disability are unmatched. In addition to holding the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association’s (ASHA) Certificate of Clinical Competence in Speech- Language Pathology, Joan was an ASHA Fellow and a Board Certified Specialist in Swallowing and Swallowing Disorders. Joan was also an Honorary Adjunct Associate Professor of Speech-Language Pathology at Teachers College, Columbia University, New York where she taught for many years. Joan was active in continuing education and, in addition to her teaching at Teachers College, presented many workshops in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Europe. She was honoured as Distinguished Visiting Lecturer, Department of Communication Disorders, University of Canterbury in Christchurch, NZ, and as guest editor for a clinical forum on dysphagia in schools, published in Language, Speech and Hearing Services in Schools . Joan contributed many scientific papers to peer-reviewed journals and authored scholarly book chapters on a variety of topics on dysphagia in children and adults with developmental disability.

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JCPSLP Volume 20, Number 2 2018

www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au