Support for Speech

choose to transfer. I am honored to have an opportunity to support student success as job No. 1, so that we can ensure the region’s economic and workforce development is strengthened as a result of EWU’s priorities and actions.”

Johnson also previously served as the president of the Washington Association of Community and Technical Colleges (WACTC) and was named Washington CEO of the Year in 2022. While working with Eastern’s board, she will also fulfill the three years remaining on her term as a member of the Gonzaga University Board of Trustees.

A generous grant will help Eastern help Parkinson’s patients.

The World Health Organization estimates that some 8.5 million people across the globe live with Parkinson’s disease, a brain disorder that causes unintended or uncontrollable movements, such as shaking, stiffness and difficulty with balance and coordination. As the illness progresses, verbal communications and swallowing are often adversely affected.

Helping patients overcome speech and swallowing issues has long been a priority for clinicians and researchers with EWU’s Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders. Now, thanks in part to a $280,000 grant from the Parkinson Voice Project, a Texas-based nonprofit that provides speech therapy for Parkinson’s patients, those efforts will continue well into the future.

The five-year grant will provide the training, supplies and research equipment necessary for EWU’s Speech and Language Clinic to expand its use of the SPEAK OUT! program, a therapy that helps people with Parkinson’s and related disorders retain and regain speech and communication abilities while reducing swallowing complications.

EWU was among 16 universities in 16 states to receive a share of the more than $4.5 million in services and funding from the Parkinson Voice Project. The grants were announced on April 11, World Parkinson’s Day.

At EWU, the grant will expand access to both in-person programs and telehealth therapies. It will also allow some 25 graduate students to take the SPEAK OUT! online therapy course each year. The course typically costs $475 — putting it out of reach for many students.

“The really neat thing is that the students get to do the training — and it’s about 10 hours — at no charge,” says Doreen Nicholas, senior lecturer and director of the EWU Speech and Language Clinic.

The grant is just the latest instance of a larger, decade-long collaboration between the EWU Speech and Language Clinic and the Parkinson Voice Project. During that time, the EWU clinic has helped close to 100 Parkinson’s patients from the greater Spokane area learn exercises that strengthen muscles that support speaking and swallowing.

“I think it’s so great that this is something that Eastern can stand out for providing,” says Nicholas.