Join ASHA's CEO Live Chat

Hello Everyone,

Since this event was announced, I’ve been looking forward to this evening.

Welcome to my first CEO Live Chat, ASHA: Renewal and Regeneration.

I am truly honored and humbled to serve as ASHA’s CEO, only the fourth in our almost 100-year history—and that’s not a responsibility I take lightly.

ASHA is 218,000 audiologists; speech-language pathologists; speech, language, and hearing scientists; audiology and speech-language pathology support personnel; and students.

I am energized to work with each one of you.

This evening, I hope you'll share your ideas of what we can do, and together we can come up with some possible solutions.

Let me start with some positive news for our professions — hot off the press!

These rankings were released today in U.S. News & World Report’s Best Jobs Rankings for 2022 — https://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/rankings/the-100-best-jobs

Speech-Language Pathologist ranks #10 overall in Best Jobs.

https://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/speech-language-pathologist.

Speech-Language Pathologist ranks #3 and Audiologist ranks #22 in the "Best Health Care Jobs" category.

https://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/rankings/best-healthcare-jobs

One point to note with these rankings, the focus is on clinical SLPs.

Our own 2020 Past President, Theresa Rodgers, was cited in the "What is a Speech-Language Pathologist?" section. Great job, Theresa!

https://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/speech-language-pathologist

Although the outlook is bright for our CSD professions, I understand you face challenges in your daily work life.

This Live Chat is the first of several opportunities I will use to listen to your concerns.

Addressing current challenges and charting the future of the CSD discipline is a joint effort, and I firmly believe, member input is a critical element.

ASHA has been and will continue to advocate on behalf of members on all these issues on both the federal and state levels.

As a professional association, ASHA supports the CSD professions with standards of professional practice, certification, CE, publications, research, advocacy, accreditation, academic program development, public awareness and engagement, etc.

We are constantly looking to develop new resources for members too to help you self-advocate.

Productivity standards are not set by ASHA, or any payer such as CMS and are determined by facilities or rehab agencies based on a number of factors. You can find data about salaries, caseloads, and other workforce related trends by reviewing the SLP Health Care Survey: https://www.asha.org/research/memberdata/healthcare-survey/.

While ASHA cannot dictate productivity standards, over the years ASHA has contributed to increasing awareness of unrealistic productivity expectations; developing resources to support and advocate for members Clinical Judgement; and collaborated with our colleagues to present a united front against these concerns around productivity.

ASHA encourages assignment of SLPs based on workload rather than caseload.

The total number of workload activities required and performed by school-based SLPs should be considered when establishing caseloads. ASHA recommends taking a workload analysis approach to setting caseloads to ensure students receive the services they need to support their educational programs (ASHA, 2002).

There was a lot to that question so hopefully I got it all.

We are not allotting a specific dollar amount. We have established a number of initiatives to peel back the many layers of processes and policies that have been institutionalized including in our certification and accreditation functions.

As many of you know, this isn't new to us, we've been at this for years and we're finally able to go deeper in some areas that have needed addressing for some time...

The Council for Clinical Certification (CFCC) and the Council for Academic Accreditation (CAA) have both made major commitments and taken steps for change in the last year.

Many academic programs too are adjusting their admission processes. We're continuing to develop tools to support these changes.

We also have an expectation that DEI will be addressed actively and intentionally across all of the association's functions. You should see more of these changes becoming apparent in the near future.

How will you address the research to practice gap that currently exists?

One of ASHA's Strategic Objectives (Objective #3) looks specifically at the generation, publication, knowledge translation and implementation of clinical research. You can read more about the specifics of what's being done and the outcomes of that work at https://www.asha.org/about/strategic-objective-highlights/

How has covid influenced ASHA's thinking about future conferences and the convention?

We learned a lot this past year about what we can do and how that increases members' access to professional development. We are adjusting our plans going forward to create events that will offer opportunities for people to connect in person as well as virtually and to offer some hybrid versions of our meetings/conferences.

We'll continue to try to meet members' needs in a variety of ways so that all of you can take advantage of the quality educational offerings we have.

How do you foresee Audiologists in being a part of ASHA in the future?

We need to take full advantage of both the synergy between our professions and advance autonomy for both professions. We know we need to build access and trust among Audiologists so they can take full advantage of all that ASHA can offer. We need to focus on early career professionals and students and prioritize ways to support audiologists in their daily practice.

We'll continue serving as a convener of related audiology organizations and promote education for audiologists related to OTC hearing aids and work to increase consumer education.

Why is ASHA not issuing a public apology to Dr. Humbert for the racist ethics complaint brought against her? What exactly is the ethics complaint & adjudication process?

It is the policy of the ASHA Board of Ethics to keep all information regarding ethics matters strictly confidential. Therefore, the Board of Ethics cannot disclose any information regarding a complaint or disciplinary action with a third party, unless it issues a public sanction. This policy was established for the protection of the respondent and complainant, so that they can openly and candidly express their accounts and views during the process, without fear of reprisal. There’s more information on the Ethics Resources page about the Board of Ethics and the complaint and adjudication process. In particular, the Practices and Procedures of the Board of Ethics (2020), outlines the procedures the Board of Ethics follows when it receives any and all complaints.

I’m guessing my response is disappointing since it means we are unable to act in response to the many requests, but I hope reviewing the process will at least be helpful in understanding why those of us not directly involved in this case are unable to discuss the matter.

All complaints are handled by the ASHA Board of Ethics (BOE). The Board of Ethics operates in a semi-autonomous manner in adjudicating complaints. Therefore, complaint information is not disclosed to any ASHA employee outside of the Ethics Office.

The Board of Ethics has Practices and Procedures that must be followed for every complaint it receives.

Once a complaint is received, it is sent to the member/certificate holder for a written response. When the Ethics Office receives this response, information from all parties is reviewed and a determination is made about whether to move the case forward. If there is insufficient evidence, the case is dismissed at that time. The full Board of Ethics is not aware of any complaint until a response is received from the certificate holder or member and a determination is made to move forward.

Once a case is heard, the BOE determines if the case should be dismissed or if a sanction should be issued. There is a wide variety of sanctions, from a private reprimand to revocation of certification and membership.  If the certificate holder or member disagrees with the sanction, then they have two opportunities to appeal the decision.  Again that policy and process is outlined on the ASHA website.

Code of Ethics - Principle IV, Rule M which states, “Individuals with evidence that the Code of Ethics may have been violated have the responsibility to work collaboratively to resolve the situation where possible or to inform the BOE through its established procedures.”

So, a complainant is not required to contact the subject of the complaint to resolve the matter prior to going to the BOE. A complainant can choose to either contact the subject and try to resolve the matter or inform the BOE through its established procedures.

What do ASHA dues cover? Other organizations don’t have to pay as much as ASHA in membership dues. What are my dues going towards?

As an ASHA member, your dues cover the cost of your certification and membership, which includes a broad range of resources, products and services provided to you as an ASHA member and includes operational costs. How the revenue stream is allocated is guided by member feedback, obtained via regular services as well as input by the ASHA volunteer leaders who make up the ASHA Board of Directors and Financial Planning Board.  For more in-depth information about revenue and expenses, please view ASHA’s 2020 audited financial statement. Please note, non-dues revenue from units such as Continuing Education, Convention, Education Programs, and SIGS produce revenue exceeding what it costs to run those programs. This has allowed ASHA to avoid dues increases for the past 11 years, something very few membership organizations have been able to do over the last decade. By comparison, annual dues for similar organizations such as the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) and American Physical Therapist Association (APTA) are $225 and $295 respectively.

How can we make the field more diverse? Can Asha stipulate that X number of graduate seats go to POC?

ASHA does not have any authority over the admissions process at academic institutions so we can't dictate anything related to the number of students of color admitted.

We have several activities that have been ongoing to recruit and retain POC. E.g., Diversity recruitment brochures tailored for various segments of underrepresented students, a redesigned Diversity Recruitment website, the Minority Student Leadership Program (MSLP).

https://www.asha.org/careers/career-guidance-tools/

https://hearingandspeechcareers.org/

https://www.asha.org/students/mslp-award/

As many of our efforts target high school students, this is a long-term plan.

With the requirements for CSO of Multicultural Affairs being so restrictive that only someone who has learned and developed skills under problematic systems will qualify. Why is there more of a focus on money management and administration versus actual DEI or multicultural issues? Do you seriously think one person can be the catalyst for change for such a dynamic need? What are they going to be able to do that you were unable to do?

Hopefully I've already done some of that over the course of the many years I've been here.

My reality is that I bring my lived experiences that align with many of those who are underrepresented in our professions. I have a platform to voice many of the issues that some have been unable to bring to light. It's who I am, and that's what I do.

We know there were a ton of questions, comments and suggestions that we didn’t get a chance to address tonight. This will not be our only opportunity to interact, and we’ll be exploring more ways to engage directly with members in the coming months. In the meantime, please continue to engage with us, read ASHA Now, and sign up for ASHA Headlines to get the latest information on ASHA Advocacy efforts.

If you need immediate responses to your questions? Call our Action Center- they're here to connect you with the resources and staff you need to address your concerns.

Thank you for joining me and I'm looking forward to connecting more!

I appreciate the trust you showed by sharing your frustrations, concerns, and challenges with me. Thank you.

I am energized by all your support, insightful comments, and willingness to discuss possible solutions. This is a great start!

We will build on these positive discussions to solve the challenges together.

I look forward to working with all of you to chart the future of our professions.

Wishing you a healthy and successful year ahead, Vicki