Phuong Lien Palafox

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Phuong Lien Palafox

As a speech therapist, Phuong will support your communication journey. As a consultant, Phuong will empower your team.

As a keynoter, Phuong will get you to 1) feel big, 2) think differently and, ultimatley, 3) take action to fuel your days.

08/29/2026

Visual Description: All visuals feature yellow text on a dark charcoal background.

Communication sciences is about people—not standards of right or wrong—and supporting communication rights, access, autonomy, and joy.

Communication sciences emerged in the 1800s from practices focused on correcting, classifying, measuring, diagnosing, and remediating communication.

From the 1940s–1990s, the field expanded while disability rights movements challenged normalization and centered rights, access, and autonomy.

Throughout its history, communication sciences has been shaped by eugenics, ableism, biased assessment practices, racism, and linguistic discrimination.

Moving forward requires understanding our past, with history as a compass toward communication justice.

08/22/2026

We started with systems—a framework for sustaining our work, grounded in my research alongside Tobias A. Kroll on overwhelmed school-based SLPs (Palafox et al., 2025).

Then, we shifted to the ABCs of our sessions: Art. Books. Connection. The creative, meaningful stuff that keeps us connected to our students and to the work.

Throughout the day, I kept hearing something important from the SLPs: Plano ISD leadership begins with compassion. My work alongside school districts continues to confirm just how much this matters. If we want meaningful impact for students, we have to care about the people supporting them.

We also made zines and did some wild SLP bartering. I was bestowed a lovely story by Amy about her cat, Cai. What heARTistry! And y’all…notice what Cai is eating?! It’s my FAVE!

Here’s to the 26–27 school year. In your corner, SLPs. Always. 💛

Big-love to Amy, Amanda and Rachel. Thank you for the invitation and trust.

Visual Description: Smiling selfie of Phuong in front of Plano ISD school-based SLPs. Yellow text box reads: “Plano ISD, 26–27 SLP Kick-Off, From Systems to Sessions.”

08/21/2026

I get to move through our world carrying Vietnamese, English, and Spanish. My parents knew Mandarin, Cantonese, Hakka, Vietnamese, French, and English.

I was taught that language is meaningful. Not a threat. For this, I am grateful.

Visual Description: Dark purple graphic celebrating multilingualism and the many ways language carries art, joy, grief, stories, memory, opportunity, community, understanding, and relationships. It concludes that centering one language is intentional erasure, with “erasure of people” visually faded.

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08/14/2026

I was part of MODERN, a two-day celebration of Vietnamese-American music, stories, fashion, artistry, language, and JOY. This first-ever event, grant-funded by , was the creative vision of promqueen 👑 and mHart.

From a third album drop by promqueen 👑 and a performance by quỳnh, to a thoughtfully moderated panel by Minh, designs by Alexis (Lexy) Doan, Nick Phat Nguyen, Glenda Lee, and Anna Nguyen, and a multigenerational fashion show with models spanning 7-weeks-old to 78-years-old, I am overwhelmed by the intention behind it all and the community that showed up.

Here’s to the moments and the people who are a balm for our days. 💜

Image 1: A model walks the MODERN runway wearing a red, yellow, teal, and white Vietnamese-inspired design by Alexis (Lexy) Doan.

Video: Highlights from MODERN featuring performances by promqueen 👑 and quỳnh, models on the runway, a community panel, and a final walk with models and designers. Music: “Nimbus” by promqueen 👑.

06/28/2026

Our family was New York bound with Zac’s MAC band performance at Carnegie Hall. Like, in what life does this happen?! It looks like this one 🥹.
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With the tenacity of vacationing parents and witchery ways of squeezing 27 hours in a day, we ate late night pizza, had everything bagels with scallion scream cheese, rode a boat to see Lady Liberty, took in the 9/11 memorial, saw a woman drop her phone down down a street grate at Rockefeller, experienced shoe rot in Times Square and the demise of my vintage Danskos, saw the Titaníque musical, had NY cheesecake, took the subway to the Bronx Zoo, slowly flapped my arms alongside so many butterflies, saw an okapi, took in the MOMA, spent time looking at the work of Van Gogh, Monet, Warhol, and Basquiat with our naked eyeballs, and took in the acoustics of Carnegie as our McCallum Band played with high school enthusiasm and musician hearts ❤️.
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I feel proud. And grateful. And overwhelmingly lucky to spend time alongside my people. Through time and space and our universe, how incredible is it that we found one another? ✨

06/26/2026

Stories are powerful. Join me at Arkansas’ Summer Schools Conference keynote session as we explore how using stories can fuel communication, strengthen educational practices, and build student confidence and joy.

Whether you’re in Arkansas or anywhere else, you can register (link in bio), earn CEUs/PDHs, and stay for meaningful sessions on hearing differences in the classroom, AAC, mindful IEPs (Colleen | SLP | Advocate | Podcast Host and Dr. Angelyn Franks | Clinician Burnout Coach & Speaker | SLP), transitioning beyond high school, and more.

I can’t wait to learn alongside you. See you July 8th!

Music: Sandstorm by Darude

Thank you to Georgetown Public Library | TX for this creative and fun idea ✨.

Alt Text: Phuong, in denim and yellow-tinted glasses, dances to “Sandstorm” as text overlays introduce her ArkSHA Summer Schools Conference keynote. The session includes using stories in intake/assessments, practical story-based intervention, AAC, and service delivery considerations. It concludes with Phuong’s arm moving like the hands of a clock continuously with the words “Hours of Student Communication, Impact, Meaning, Joy and FUN!” The video ends with the conference date of Wednesday, July 8th and “see y’all soon.”

06/03/2026

YOUR EXPERIENCE CAN SUPPORT CHANGE

Last year, school-based SLPs described overwhelm, impossible workloads, and the invisible labor required to keep systems functioning (Palafox, Kroll, & Morgan, 2025). This national follow-up study examines workload, support, role understanding, and the sustainability of school-based practice.

Our first post reached more than 27,000 SLPs, and nearly 600 have already participated.

If you are a school-based SLP, we want your experience represented before we run the data. The survey closes June 14.

It takes about 5 minutes, is completely anonymous, and findings will be shared nationally, including at the ASHA Convention.

Take the survey. Share the survey.

Because systems cannot say, "We didn't know."

Survey link in the comments.

05/24/2026

+ to celebrate AANHPI Heritage Month is the kind of community and JOY we all need.

Alt text: Instagram reel celebrating AANHPI Heritage Month at H-E-B with the Summit Lion-Dragon Team. Scenes show lion dancers, a dragon moving through the store, a drummer in a Summit shirt, outdoor dragon dancing, and an H-E-B employee holding a celebratory sign.

05/22/2026

It feels dense right now with helping a district close out their school year, investing alongside a new (incredible) 2-year-old client and family, and preparing for end-of-year workshops and keynotes.

This morning, between my walk and some head-and-heart space to create, I found myself feeling grateful. This is what I wanted to do with my life, and I’m doing it.

Alt text: Dark charcoal graphic with white minimalist text reflecting on communication, advocacy, autonomy, and joy in speech-language therapy. The centered closing reads, “I am a speech-language therapist. This is what I get to do.” The creator handle, , appears subtly at the bottom.

05/19/2026

Still on cloud nine about this one.
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Alt text:
Text slide about loving clouds since 2nd grade, comparing cumulus clouds to har gow dumplings, and reflecting on 23 years as a speech-language therapist.

Text slide describing a client’s love of Pokémon, theatre, family, and nature, alongside shared cloud lore during walks outside.

Text slide about finding a Cloud Collector’s Handbook for 25 cents and bonding over mammatus clouds.

Text slide describing spotting mammatus clouds, receiving a photo from a client’s dad, and the child asking to send it to “Auntie Phuong.”

Text slide reflecting on a shared moment between therapist and client, communication as mutual participation, and small details known about one another.

Text slide sharing reflections on trust, communication, and meaningful time spent alongside a student. Signed “Love, Phuong.”

Gray mammatus clouds hang above silhouetted trees and rooftops during a golden Texas sunset.

Short video of Phuong looking through Cloud Collector’s Handbook and stopping on page about Mamma Clouds.

Address

Austin, TX
78727

Website

http://www.phuonglienpalafox.com/

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