B. To be completed August, 2015
8. If you are professionally employed, please indicate any other work settings. (in addition to your primary)
Answer Options Response
Percent
Response Count
Public Schools 23.1% 3
Hospital/Outpatient Clinic 0.0% 0
Long-term Care 23.1% 3
Early Steps 23.1% 3
Home Health 7.7% 1
Private Clinic 23.1% 3
Other 15.4% 2
Answered question 13 Skipped question 23
6.6 Special Student Services: What development programs or activities, other than those provided by the university, does the department provide for program students (i.e., career days, career seminars, group advising, special academic events, etc.)?
Faculty Advisors work very closely with interested students. During school breaks, faculty assist transfer students or students with scheduling or financial aid issues to ensure that all students interested in the COMD major are accommodated in a timely manner. Since most lecture classes are only offered once a year, instructors check rolls prior to the
beginning of the semester to ensure that all students who should be registered are enrolled in the class. This helps students to avoid missing necessary prerequisites as they matriculate through the major and graduate on time or early. In Fall 2014 as a new practice, students entering the university with 9 hours of advanced placement who had already identified themselves as a COMD major, were identified and interviewed prior to the beginning of class. Subsequently, two freshman students were invited into COMD classes a year earlier than the typical curriculum. Relative to feedback in Senior Exit Interviews and Alumni Surveys, now active advising about graduate programs begins very early. Group lectures are provided in freshman and sophomore classes relative to COMD occupational opportunities, as well as, the competitiveness of graduate school application process, including weight on overall GPA. Education in the value of the COMD curriculum for pursuing other careers is presented in at various times in the program, primarily for the benefit of the small percentage of COMD majors not well suited for COMD graduate studies. A class lecture and project has been added to COMD 330, the first class of the clinical track, in which students, develop a plan with timelines and a budget, to guide them through the process of application to graduate studies in COMD or pursuing other interests. Upon completion, a copy of this project is placed in the student’s academic advising folder to aid their Faculty Advisor.
Additionally, this has resulted in faculty being able to more effectively educate students about their individual options for acceptance and to help Nicholls students to begin to consider a wider pool of graduate programs.
7. Faculty
7.1 Faculty Who Are Direct Participants in the Program:
Current faculty include:
Faculty Name Role in the AHSC program Courses
Taught
Full-Time Program Assignment Blake, Barbara T., M.S., CCC-SLP
FT Faculty, Clinical Supervisor, Academic Advisor
COMD 121, 279,330, 340, 430, 440
COMD
Bourgeois, Claire A., MCD, CCC-SLP
Clinical Coordinator, FT Faculty, Clinical Supervisor, Academic Advisor
COMD 327, 330, 340, 430, 380, 397, 386.
COMD
Fitzgerald-DeJean, Donna, PhD, CCC-SLP
Program Coordinator, FT Faculty, Clinical
Supervisor, Academic Advisor
COMD 279, 281, 330, 340, 399, 400, 430, 440.
COMD
Gremillion, Suzanne B. , M.A., CCC-SLP
FT Faculty, Clinical Supervisor, Academic Advisor
COMD 278, 330, 340, 384, 395, 430, 436, 440.
COMD
Adams, Wendy, Aud., CCC-A
Thru 12/2012: FT Faculty, Clinical Supervisor, Academic Advisor 1/2013 to Present- Adjunct
COMD 350,
390, 410. COMD
Table 1
FACULTY PROFILE AND TEACHING LOAD (Report quantity for last 5 years or since last review)
Name
Date of
Employment Present Rank
Full-Time / Part-Time
Tenured/
Non-Tenured Highest Degree Earned
Average Teaching Load
No. of Advisees Assigned by Program
(Numbers for program only, not numbers for multiple programs
in single department.)
FT PT T NT Credit
Hour
Contact
Hour Graduate Undergrad 1. Wendy Adams
8/2008-12/2012 Assistant Professor X X Au.D. 7 9 NA 20-22
1/2013 - Present Adjunct X Au.D. 3 3 NA 0
2. Lynne Bourgeois
8/1992-5/2011 Assistant Professor X X M.C.D. 9 13 NA 12
8/2012-5/2012 Adjunct X X M.C.D. 3 7 NA 0
3. Claire Bourgeois 8/1999 - Present Assistant Professor X X M.C.D.
+24 9 13 NA 11-21
4. Suzanne Gremillion 1/1999 - Present Assistant Professor X X M.A. 9 13 NA 11-21
5. Parker, Celeste 8/2010-5/2012 Instructor X X M.A. 9 13
6. Donna Fitzgerald-DeJean 8/2011-Present Associate Professor X X Ph.D. 9 13 NA 11-21
7. Barbara Blake
8/2012-5/2012 Adjunct X X M.S 3 7 NA 0
8/2013-Present Instructor X X M.S 9 13 NA 8-9
8. Christy Robichaux 8/2012-12/2012 Adjunct X X M.S. 6 14 NA 0
9. Katie Dupre 8/2012-5/2012 Adjunct X X M.C.D. 3 7 NA 0
10. Lorna Boudreaux
8/2009-12/2009 Adjunct X X M.S. 3 7 NA 0
1/2010-5/2010 Adjunct X X M.S. 6 14 NA 0
11. Lisa Pinell 8/2009-12/2009 Adjunct X X M.A. 3 7 NA 0
12. April Seneca 1/2010-5/2010 Adjunct X X M.S. 3 7 NA 0
7.2 Narrative of Faculty Accomplishments
Faculty Academic Credentials: As noted earlier, results of the graduating senior Exit Interviews and the Nicholls COMD Alumni Survey 2008-2012 continue to identify the knowledgebase and clinical expertise of the faculty among the most significant program strengths. Faculty currently consists of 4 fulltime faculty members including: 1 with a research doctorate, 2 with research master’s degree and 1 with a clinical master’s and +24 hours of coursework. Additionally, an adjunct faculty member who administers 1 course per semester has a clinical doctorate. All faculty are ASHA accredited, therefore, they were prepared to serve individuals across age groups and educational, medical and private practice sectors. At Nicholls, most COMD academic courses are taught once per year, by the same faculty member. This allows faculty to more closely monitor research in the area of their academic coursework and to serve as a clinical consultant to faculty and students in the area they teach (i.e. a student with an articulation client may be referred to the faculty member teaching COMD 384 for assistance in articulatory placement for an unusual client). The adjunct AUD faculty was a fulltime COMD faculty member for the 4 years prior to becoming adjunct, therefore, she is well integrated into the program and continues to work cooperatively with the faculty in initiatives to strengthen the program.
Faculty Clinical Credentials: Faculty have exceptional clinical credentials which: strengthen clinical application taught in their academic courses; increase their clinical credibility for
supervision; and provide the program very diverse work force knowledge as students investigate careers in COMD. All SLP faculty have experience providing SLP services to children in public schools and 1 faculty previously served as a SLP diagnostician in Pupil Appraisal. In addition to maintaining ASHA the Certificate of Clinical Competence (CCC), all SLP faculty maintain state licensure and a teaching certificate in order to serve as a Nicholls Clinical Supervisor. Two SLP faculty members have experience working in facilities serving individuals with severe to
profound intellectual impairments. Three SLP faculty members have medical clinical experience in at least three settings such as: hospital, rehabilitation, skilled nursing facility, outpatient clinic, and/or home health. Two of these faculty members have been in corporate leadership positons and both are Academy of Certification of Brain Injury Specialists. One faculty member is also a certified Vital Stim provider who is able to incorporate electrical stimulation into dysphagia treatment. Three faculty members have administered Videofluoroscopic Swallow Evaluations.
While most faculty dysphagia experience is with adults, two SLPs have some pediatric swallow experience. One SLP and the adjunct AUD faculty have experience working with the
Department of Health and Hospitals in early detection and treatment of hearing or medically related SLP problems. The adjunct AUD also has hospital experience with neonatal hearing screening and has performed various diagnostic audiological procedures including central auditory processing evaluations, vestibular diagnostic evaluations, adult hearing aid evaluations, and follow-up dispensing hearing aids in various medical and educational settings. However, while these are relatively typical AUD career experiences, this AUD has more distinguishing, unusual AUD experience including: performing Auditory Verbal Therapy with children with Cochlear Implants and she currently serves as a fulltime Educational Audiologist at the La.
School for the Deaf and Visually Impaired.
38 Teaching
Student Credit Hour (SCH) Production Comparison SCH Production
2009-2014
SCH Production 2004-2009
TERM SCH TERM SCH
2009-2010 1100 2004-2005 1008 2010-2011 1305 2005-2006 1187 2011-2012 1386 2006-2007 1187 2012-2013 1333 2007-2008 943 2013-2014 1161 2008-2009 974
Just as SCH production grew in the 5 year review cycle previous to this one, this period again surpassed the previous cycle. It should be noted that the SCH is understated in 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 as COMD faculty was teaching Physics 121 Physics of Sound. This course was contained in the COMD curriculum because a course in the acoustics of sound is a prerequisite for COMD graduate studies. In 2011, Courses and Curriculum approved changing the course to COMD 121. The curriculum change in 2013 contained a decrease of 4 hours in COMD hours required for graduation. Therefore, it is projected that with decreased curriculum hours along with a simultaneous dip in enrollment, that SCH will trend a bit lower in 2014-2015. However, enrollment for entry level courses for SP 2015 appears to be trending favorably again.
The workload of the fulltime COMD faculty contains 6 hours of didactic, as well as 13 contact hours with clinical supervision. All supervision is provided by faculty in compliance with the recommendations for pre-professional programs by ASHA (the national accrediting body for COMD graduate programs).
Table 2
FACULTY RESEARCH / SCHOLARLY ACTIVITIES (Report quantity for last 5 years or since last review)
The faculty has remained very involved in building the clinical, technological, outreach and research capabilities of the COMD program.
In order to improve technology to support strengthening didactic and clinical experiences, the faculty secured a Student Technology Fee grant in 2013 of $25, 131. to update Talbot 105, the classroom most utilized by the program, and to replace outdated video
monitoring equipment in the clinic with Apple TV capable flat screen TVs and mounted IPADS.
The faculty gave a presentation “Wishing for Perfect Speech and Language
Development” to St. Mary Vermillion CAA Head Start faculty and staff in Franklin, La.
on March 13, 2013.
Faculty members provided a NAH Faculty Podium Presentation, “Case Study:
Alaryngeal Speech” on March, 2013.
In 2012, the Program Director contributed to the peer reviewed publication “An
application of the experience sampling method to the study of aphasia: A case report” in the journal, Aphasiology (26(2), 234-251; Fitzgerald-DeJean, D. M., Rubin, S. S., &
Carson, R. L.).
The Program Director was invited to present the following presentations:
o “Who am I now? Living with aphasia or cognitive-linguistic impairment.
BRASLP Summer CE Event, Baton Rouge, Louisiana in June, 2014.
o
“Neuro Rounds: Cognition VS Language: A Chicken: Egg Scenario. Seventeenth Annual LBESPA Workshop, Baton Rouge, Louisiana in April, 2013.o ACBIS Examination Certification Preparation Course (with A. B. Clancy), LSHA Annual Convention, Shreveport, Louisiana in April, 2013.
The Program Director submitted and was accepted to present numerous platform and poster sessions either individually or with colleagues from LSUHSC-NO or the
University of Auburn-Montgomery at: Annual ASHA Conventions and Annual LSHA Conventions.
Name
Number of Refereed Publications
Number of Citations
Grants Number of
Presentations Number of Exhibitions Number Amount Paper Poster
D. Fitzgerald- DeJean, C.
Bourgeois, B. Blake & S.
Gremillion
0 0 1 $25, 131.00 0 0 0
D. Fitzgerald- DeJean, C.
Bourgeois, B. Blake & S.
Gremillion
0 0 0 0 1 0 0
D. Fitzgerald- DeJean, C.
Bourgeois 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
D. Fitzgerald- DeJean 1 5 0 0 8 6 0
40
This has been an especially busy period for the COMD faculty. Members of the faculty serve on:
Faculty Senate, Courses and Curricula, and the QEP Topic Committee and various other college and department committees. W. Adams, S. Gremillion and B. Blake have served as NSSHLA Advisor. Faculty regularly nominate deserving students for Who’s Who, Nicholls Hall of Fame, National NSSHLA Student Awards and LSHA Student Awards. Faculty actively participate in Nicholls CAN!, Scholars Banquet, Family Day, and Race for the Cure. Additionally, C.
Bourgeois is very involved in Nicholls PanHellenic related activities and is presently serving as President of Pro Nicholls. Also, D. Fitzgerald-DeJean just completed 7 years of service on the LSHA Board, including Director of Healthcare. She has served on the ASHA STAR and SMAC Healthcare Networks and has been a member of the State Association Presidents. During this time, W. Adams also served on the LSHA Board, while S. Gremillion was engaged in LSHA Committee work. In 2012, L. Bourgeois was recognized as Fellow of LSHA and then, in 2014, D. Fitzgerald-DeJean was recognized as a Fellow of LSHA. Additionally, during this review period, the faculty has been extremely engaged in numerous COMD initiatives to improve systems and to strengthen the program including: Development of a COMD Advisory Board with subsequent annual meetings, electronic surveying via Graduating Senior Exit Interview (utilized to survey each cohort of graduating seniors) and the Alumni Survey (administered 2013 for 2008-2012), curriculum redesign, streamlining student clinical documentation, developing new systems to expedite reporting of screening results, electronic reporting for Senior
Verification of Clock Hours, improve student advising with expand service learning opportunities in the COMD program, and improved documentation of faculty meetings.
7.3 Staffing Changes:
At the end of the Spring 2009 semester, C. Robichaux resigned, but, the positon was not able to be filled during the Fall 2009-Spring 2012 school year. Therefore, adjunct assistance was used to augment clinical supervision including: L. Boudreaux and L. Pinell in the Fall 2009, and L.
Boudreaux and A. Seneca in Spring 2010. The following year, C. Parker was hired as an
Table 3
FACULTY SERVICE AND AWARDS (Report quantity for last 5 years or since last review)
Name Committees National/State
Committees
Professional
Committees Awards / Recognition University College Program Department
Lynn Bourgeois 2 1 5 0 0 2 LSHA Fellow
Wendy G Adams 1 0 0 0 1 0 NA
Barbara T. Blake 0 1 5 1 0 0 NA
Claire A. Bourgeois 4 2 14 2 0 0 Pro NSU Board President
Donna Fitzgerald-
DeJean 3 2 14 1 5 0
LSHA Fellow Past President LSHA
Council of State Association Presidents LSHA Dir. Of Healthcare Suzanne Gremillion
1 1 16 2 1 0 Nicholls 15 Year
Employee Recognition
Instructor who functioned primarily as a Clinical Supervisor. In the Spring of 2011, Program Director, L. Bourgeois, decided to resign. During the 2011-2012 school year, D. Fitzgerald-DeJean was hired as an Associate Professor and Program Director, but, C. Parker resigned at the end of the year. Then in 2012-2013, as the faculty worked on revamping the curriculum to align it with the new mission, adjunct assistance (i.e. B. Blake, L. Bourgeois, K. Dupre, & C.
Robichaux), was used to meet the needs of the students in the old curriculum requiring 3 clinical practicums. Additionally, in the Fall, 2013, W. Adams announced her resignation effective Spring 2014. That spring, W. Adams was able to teach COMD 410 as planned and D. Fitzgerald-DeJean picked up COMD 400. Adjunct assistance for SLP supervision, continued until B. Blake could begin the next Fall (2013). Too, the positon that C. Parker had held was re-focused as faculty began shifting students into the newer curriculum (with 1 less practicum) with B. Blake assigned to the COMD 330 Orientation to Clinical Practice, COMD 121 (from W. Adams), COMD 279 (from D. Fitzgerald-DeJean), and Clinical Supervision with all of the rest of faculty.
Fortunately, W. Adams was able to continue to teach the 2 core AUD courses on an adjunct basis each year.
7.4 Strengths or Specialists Not Existing in Present Faculty:
What strengths or specialties not possessed by current faculty would be desirable to improve the program and its mission?
The program is well staffed at this time.
7.5 Special Faculty Services:
a. What professional development program(s) or activities, other than provided by the university, does the department have for its faculty?
The program faculty are provided professional development programs with nationally acclaimed speakers through the CNAH and Faculty Institute. Nicholls CAFÉ has frequent offerings in areas identified by faculty as interests/needs. During the review period, extensive faculty education opportunities have been offered to assist with the transition from Blackboard to Moodle and for use of Live Text. Staff at the library have provided training for the program faculty in using electronic databases. Nicholls faculty and staff are generous in providing assistance when it is requested. Additionally, faculty are
encouraged to participate in one external continuing education activity each year which is funded through revenue from interagency agreements. This review cycle reimbursement was provided to help faculty: cover the cost of attending the Campbell Conference at SELU, in Hammond, La., expenses associated with attending the annual LSHA Convention in Baton Rouge and Lafayette, La. and registration to attend ASHA conventions in New Orleans, Atlanta, Chicago, and Orlando.
b. What other services are the faculty providing?
42
During this review period, faculty provided SLP and AUD assessment and therapy services to individuals from the community, Nicholls’ students, Nicholls’
faculty/staff and their dependents through the Jo Carol Nolen Speech, Language and Hearing Center. The Nolen Center is one of the last university clinics in the state where no fees are charged for services. The services of the Nolen Center continue to be of value to the region. Additionally, faculty members serve as advocates to the graduate schools for their students/graduates. They are child advocates and consultants within the agencies with whom the program contracts. Faculty are the members of various professional organizations, as well as, serving on professional and community boards. They are actively involved in professional presentations.
8. Departmental Objectives Related to the Program (See Part 1 and 2 of Level III Annual