Speak Out August 2020 1-18

And, the winners are... Life Membership

Life Membership is the highest public professional honour the Association awards to members and is awarded to speech pathologists who have demonstrated outstanding leadership and committed service to the Association and profession over many years. In 2020 the Association was proud to award Life Membership to two exceptional members of the Association.

In total, Hilary has authored 38 journal publications and has a Scopus H-index of 13, demonstrating high citations for her papers, especially those from her early work at the Saliva Clinic, and her PhD. She has also been an author of 10 books and book chapters. Hilary was integral in the development of the Communication Access Symbol. This symbol is awarded to businesses and services that meet determined criteria for communication access. Hilary’s contribution to the profession and to people with severe disability has been multifaceted and sustained across her career. Her work has been driven by a firm commitment to improving the lives of people with the most severe disability, using her considerable clinical, education, research and advocacy skills. Hilary’s clinical and research work has drawn the attention of international colleagues to the pioneering and ongoing innovative service delivery models and AAC supports for people with disability in Australia. Hilary is deeply devoted to serving people with disability and communication impairment. Although recently retired, her advocacy role continues through ongoing work for the Australian Society for Intellectual and Development Disabilities and support and mentoring of junior colleagues. Professor Pamela Snow Pamela graduated with a

Dr Hilary Johnson Hilary is first and foremost an exemplary clinician. Her work with children with severe communication disorders in the areas of communication, saliva and mealtime management started early in her career while working in positions with specialist disability services. Hilary pioneered clinical interventions in each of these areas. Hilary’s initiatives in the Severe Communication Impairment Outreach Program, the State

Government’s Complex Communication Project, and setting up the Communication Resource Centre, have directly influenced the Department of Human Services’ understanding of the communication needs of people with a significant disability. Under Hilary’s leadership, the Communication and Inclusion Resource Centre has achieved far reaching and long term results, in increasing the understanding about communication access for people with complex communication needs, the role of AAC and knowledge of the services and systems required to meet those needs. This work built upon many previous years in which Hilary was successful in funding bids to initiate and evaluate innovative programs. Hilary, along with her colleagues at the Communication and Inclusion Resource Centre, developed the Triple C Checklist of Communicative Competencies, which remains the only communication access tool suitable for adults with severe communication impairment. Hilary’s contributions to Speech Pathology Australia were recognised early in her career, having been awarded the Elinor Wray award in 1988 and Fellowship in 1996. Hilary completed her PhD at La Trobe University in 2013 and was innovative in exploring how people with severe disabilities and complex communication needs develop and sustain social networks and interactions. In all, Hilary published five papers from her thesis in high quality journals. This work was followed by her success as first investigator on a $90,000 grant, awarded by the National Disability and Research Development scheme to translate the theoretical model developed in her PhD to an evidence-based intervention.

Bachelor of Applied Science (Speech Pathology) from the Lincoln Institute of Health Sciences in 1981, and in 1985 was awarded a Graduate Diploma in Communication Disorders (Neuropsychology and Aphasia) by the same Institution. After twelve years of clinical, administrative, and student supervision experience, Pamela was awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by La Trobe University in 1997, receiving

the Graduate Research Prize for the most outstanding PhD thesis in the Faculty of Health Sciences and the A. R. Luria Prize for the most outstanding paper based on Doctoral research at the 22nd Brain Impairment Conference. In 2004 Pamela was registered as a Psychologist in Victoria, and in 2008 achieved a Graduate Certificate in Higher Education fromMonash University. Among at least eight other distinctions and awards, Pam was honoured, in 2017, with Learning Difficulties Australia’s Mona Tobias Award “for an outstanding contribution to the field of learning difficulties through research and practice”. Pam’s contributions to Speech Pathology Australia’s activities were

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August 2020 | Speak Out