University of Wisconsin Eau Claire - Speech, Language, & Hearing Sciences

We're so excited to have Maddie Nystel joining our UWEC SLHS family. What an amazing week and wow, you're going to be so great, Maddie.

Brain In-Com brings week of TBI advocacy EAU CLAIRE — For those living with an invisible disability, recognition of its long-term effects from the outside can be difficult.

We're so excited to share a story about our second year of the Brain In-Com (Brain Injury Intensive Comprehensive Treatment Program) at UWEC SLHS in cooperation with the Brain Injury Association of Wisconsin. So fantastic to have UWEC Kinesiology involved this year too.

Unique brain injury treatment program returns to UW-Eau Claire Brain In-Com program helps area brain injury survivors and caregivers learn new tools to cope.

Episode 5 - "Rockin' Aphasia Camp" is *LIVE*!! In this episode, Chris Niles takes you to last year's Chippewa Valley Aphasia Camp through a series of interviews directly on-site. He brought up the recording gear to camp, did the interviews at camp, and mixed and produced the entire podcast. You'll hear the sounds of aphasia camp, and you'll hear from UWEC students Carlee Elliott, Anna Lindner, Macy Gutting and Betsy McGinley; SLP and long-time camp staffer Michele Knutson; and campers Michael Obel-Omia and Rochelle Anderson.

The "Rockin' Aphasia" podcast is developed, planned, recorded and produced by members of the Chippewa Valley Aphasia Network and BluGold Aphasia Group. The podcast episodes are recorded on location at various places throughout the Chippewa Valley. Big kudos to Chris Niles for all the work on this podcast episode!

You can find the Rockin' Aphasia Podcast on all podcast platforms (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, Amazon, etc.) and at the following link:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2038877/episodes/19332755

Aphasia Camp 2026 is just around the corner as well! Happening Sept. 18th - 20th, 2026 back at the newly remodeled Camp Manitou, we're looking forward to another great year of camp! reach out to us for more information or to register.

Last week marked the completion of the first Eau Claire Aphasia Project – a two-week on-campus intensive aphasia therapy program that included 3 hours of individual therapy per day and one hour of group therapy per day – all centered around self-selected individual projects. Participants with aphasia each identified a project, worked with four SLHS graduate students throughout the two weeks, and then presented their projects at the completion of the program -projects that reflect the skills, expertise, and dedication that those with aphasia put into the program. In addition to the hours of work the participants put in, there was also a walk-off grand slam at the Eau Claire Express Game, a trolley tour, a collaborative Spotify playlist, a whole lot of meals shared together, and a whole lot of hard work done by great people. Thanks to the four 2nd year SLHS graduate student clinicians Allie Hanke, Jaiden Hansbery, Syanna Urriola, and Katelyn Kukuk and thanks to Glen Mabie at UWEC’s IMC for the story and outstanding video linked below.
https://www.uwec.edu/stories/words-encouragement-blugold-grad-students-help-individuals-aphasia

www.youtube.com

Congratulations to our own Dr. Jarzynski on her most recent publication "Early Intervention Speech-Language Pathologists' Perceptions of Facilitators and Barriers to Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Assessment Practices." It's out today, available online in ASHA Perspectives. She and her co-author Dr. Milijana Buac surveyed 134 early intervention SLPs across the USA to better understand barriers and facilitators for assessment of dual-language learners within early intervention programs. Within the article Dr. Jarzynski and Dr. Buac provide specific suggestions and strategies for enhancing facilitators and mitigating barriers informed by their survey findings. Congrats to Dr. J on her continued scholarly work guiding clinicians in the field!! You can find the article linked here: https://pubs.asha.org/doi/full/10.1044/2026_PERSP-25-00258

Join us on Saturday, May 16th for a free storytelling workshop on identity and connection. "The Stories We Carry" is a workshop presented by Dr. Katie Strong, a speech therapist and professor at Central Michigan and longtime friend of the department, who works extensively on the power of story, and supporting identity and health journeys through story. This is free and open to those with brain injury or neurologic conditions, as well as their care partners and loved ones. Join us from 2 - 5 pm on Saturday, May 16th at the HSS building at UWEC.
RSVP to Jerry Hoepner ([email protected])

Last week, students from the first-year experience seminar presented their research on perceptions of rural healthcare accessibility, including perspectives from providers and patients. It was an outstanding experience and was the culmination of a full year of work surrounding this topic. It was an excellent highlight for this group of first-year students!

Proud to share the work of our undergraduate researchers in SLHS. Their posters at UWEC's Celebration of Excellence in Research and Creative Activity showcase months of hard work, collaboration, and curiosity throughout the research process.

Here's a few pics of SLHS students in action at Thursday's CERCA (Day 2). Tons of great presentations - and more to come!