Staff Report
The chairwoman of UNM's Speech and Hearing Sciences Department will begin overseeing most of the nation's speech and language doctors in January.
Amy Wohlert was elected president of the Council on Academic Accreditation of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
The ASHA is the professional, scientific and credentialing association for more than 110,000 audiologists, speech-language pathologists and speech, language and hearing scientists, according to a University news release.
As president, Wohlert will oversee the process of setting and implementing quality standards for entry-level professional education in the fields of audiology and speech-language pathology.
"This is a great opportunity to promote quality in graduate and professional education, both in my own field and in higher education in general," Wohlert said in a University news release.
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Her research at UNM is focused on the effects of aging on speech production.
"I'm looking forward to gathering ideas from innovative programs nationwide and to gaining insight into accreditation processes in a wide variety of disciplines," Wohlert said. "Of course that knowledge will be used to benefit the Council's functions, but I'll be able to apply it directly here at UNM, too."
Wohlert will serve a one-year term as president-elect, which will be followed by a two- year term as president of the council.
At UNM, Wohlert is investigating the effectiveness of voice treatment for patients with such speech debilitating conditions as Parkinson's Disease.
Wohlert earned her bachelor's and master's degrees from UNM and has practiced as a speech-language pathologist in schools, hospitals and private settings.
For the past three years she has served as a site visitor for ASHA's Council on Academic Accreditation.
The president also serves as a liaison with the U.S. Council for Higher Education Accreditation and the U.S. Department of Education. The council accredits more than 350 graduate programs nationwide.
